Glasgow Warriors players told nothing has been achieved yet as comparison to last season is made

The sun was shining at Scotstoun on Monday and there was a spring in the step of the Glasgow Warriors players after their record-breaking result at the weekend left them one game away from the club’s first ever European semi-final.

Captain Kyle Steyn scored two of Glasgow Warriors' record 11 tries against the Dragons. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

The outlook is bright for Franco Smith’s side but there is still a long way to go and the squad have been warned they haven’t won anything yet. In fact, for all that they’ve impressed, losing just once in their last 14 matches and qualifying for the quarter-finals of both the Challenge Cup and the United Rugby Championship, Glasgow are in a similar situation to where they were this time last season, a point made to the players by Smith. “There is a real steely determination to make sure we aren’t content with what we have done so far,” said Pete Horne, the Warriors assistant coach. “Franco summed it up when he asked ‘what’s different between last season and this season up to now?’ And the answer is ‘nothing’. If we bomb out of the Challenge Cup against the Lions and lose our last couple of games in the URC then it will end with a similar sort of feel to last year.”

The 2021-22 campaign disintegrated alarmingly for Glasgow who lost their final five matches to crash out of both competitions in the last eight. Most shocking of all was the 76-14 defeat by Leinster in Dublin in the URC play-off quarter-final which ultimately cost Danny Wilson his job and ushered in the Smith era. This season’s Warriors seem a more redoubtable bunch. There haven’t been huge changes to the personnel - 11 of the 15 starters who defeated the Dragons 73-33 on Saturday were at the club last year – but Smith has added grit.

One of the rewards for their fine form has been home advantage. Finishing second in their 10-team Challenge Cup pool meant they got to host the Dragons in the last 16 and they will be at Scotstoun again this Saturday for the visit of the Lions. Similarly, if they can maintain their top four status in the URC - they are fourth with two games of the regular season remaining – then they will be at home in the play-off quarter-final. This is a key distinction from last season which ended for Glasgow with a tricky run of away fixtures, all of which were lost.

For Horne, who was a Warriors player when the last won a major trophy in 2015, the current crop are where he expects them to be. “When you look at our squad on paper, we absolutely should be [in a position like this],” he said. “At the start of the season we were pretty excited but there has been some people who have really surprised everyone, they maybe just needed a new lease of life. Last year it was a case of ‘that should never have happened and we can’t let it happen again’, so it wasn’t that we needed to change our expectations – this is where we believe we should be. It is exciting when you look at the team and some of the guys we are leaving out – we’re in a good spot.”

Smith hasn’t been afraid to alter a winning team and made nine changes for the Dragons match. He was rewarded with 73 points and 11 tries – both club records. The rotation policy has strengthened the squad but Horne thinks his boss might rein in the policy of wholesale changes as they get to the business end of the season. “This week there will be a fair bit of continuity [against Lions] and then I think everyone will get a crack in the last two league games [against Scarlets and Connacht]. Then we’ll want to have a settled squad. When you are getting into the finals, you don’t want to be having 10 changes – maybe one or two to freshen things up or to replace someone who isn’t playing well – but he’ll have a fair idea of what he wants to do.”

The Lions are the only team to have beaten Glasgow in the last four months but that was at altitude in Johannesburg in a rearranged fixture and the Warriors had to travel south without their Scotland Six Nations contingent. Horne is wary of the South African side’s unpredictability but is confident the conditions will favour Glasgow this weekend. “It will be a real challenge,” said the coach. “The Lions are so unpredictable, they’re loose as anything with dangerous runners. The tries they scored against us last time came from absolutely nothing – just someone beating a couple of guys and making an 80-yard linebreak. It will be a big test but we’re looking forward to it. It won’t be at altitude and 30 degrees so it will hopefully suit our boys a little bit more. The good thing is that we want to play rugby, so hopefully coming in to the tail end of the season with the better weather, it will allow our skills to be a little bit sharper. Fingers crossed it will suit our game.

“This was always my favourite bit of the season. We’re getting to the tail end, with huge games on two fronts. This is exactly where you want to be. Training is a bit spicier, everyone is on it and desperate to play, nobody wants to be rotated out anymore, nobody is looking for a rest. Everybody is gunning for it and hopefully we can sell out the stadium this weekend. It would be a massive occasion if we were to make a semi-final, but Franco has been really good about not looking too far ahead. He’s all about process, let’s go smash the Lions this weekend and see what happens.”