Glasgow Warriors aim to get back on winning trail after World Cup slump

Glasgow Warriors assistant coach Kenny Murray says that there are no excuses for the team’s disappointing start to the season, which has seen them manage only one win from their first four outings in this Pro14 campaign, with last Saturday’s 18-5 loss at the Dragons a particularly low point.
Glasgow Warriors head coach Dave Rennie has said he will see out his contract until the end of the season. Picture: Ross MacDonald/SNSGlasgow Warriors head coach Dave Rennie has said he will see out his contract until the end of the season. Picture: Ross MacDonald/SNS
Glasgow Warriors head coach Dave Rennie has said he will see out his contract until the end of the season. Picture: Ross MacDonald/SNS

Warriors have been without their international contingent [13 players in total] who have been on World Cup duty during the opening month of the season, but Murray pointed out that this is not a new experience for the club and, in recent seasons, Glasgow have excelled during periods when fringe players are given a chance to stake their claim.

“The guys we had on the pitch were good enough to win at the Dragons at the weekend,” he stated. “We’ve just not performed as well as we’ve needed to in the first four games.

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“The Scarlets game, we played well for long parts of that, but we had this eight-minute period where we switched off, gave them cheap ball and let them in for tries.

“And it was similar at the weekend when we just didn’t exert the pressure when we needed to. Look at last year, we spoke a lot about how well we did in those international windows, we took 19 out of 20 points in the last Six Nations window, so we’ve played well with guys away before.”

There has also been a lot of speculation during the last week and a half about head coach Dave Rennie, pictured, moving to the Australia head coach job but Murray dismissed the idea that this might have had a destabilising effect.

“It is not affecting anything from my point of view, coaches or players,” he asserted.

“Dave made it clear last week that he is here to the end of the season and that is not going to change. It is up to him to talk about what happens after that. As far as any of us are concerned, we are not looking beyond that, it’s our job.”

Warriors will be boosted for Friday’s clash against the Southern Kings by the return of at least some of their internationalists.

“Out there [at training] today we had guys l
ike George Horne, Pete Horne, Adam Hastings, George Turner and Zander Fagerson – they are all available for selection,” said Murray.

“Then we have another group of guys who played a lot of game time in the World Cup and they’ll maybe come back in the week after for the Zebre game. It will be a more of drip than them all coming back in at once.”