Gregor Townsend: Glasgow are on track for 1872 Cup

Gregor Townsend is looking forward to a tremendous second half of the season. Picture: SNS/SRU

Glasgow bounced back from their harrowing two European Rugby Champions Cup defeats by Toulouse with an obdurate 21-18 success over Munster that removed the Limerick side from the top of the Guinness Pro12 table and temporarily put Warriors in pole position, before Ospreys’ defeat of Ulster relegated them to second place.

But Townsend has no doubt that his side’s win has put Glasgow back on track and provided the perfect platform into Saturday’s 1872 Cup first leg clash with Alan Solomons’ side at Scotstoun.

“The 1872 Cup is a season in itself and it will be very important in terms of league position for both teams. We knew we needed a performance that shows that we are back on track and, hopefully, this victory over Munster proves that,” said Townsend.

CONNECT WITH THE SCOTSMAN

• Subscribe to our daily newsletter (requires registration) and get the latest news, sport and business headlines delivered to your inbox every morning

• You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google +

He continued: “The one team in world rugby you do not want to go behind against is Munster. We were down by nine points at half-time, so the character the players showed was great.

“There might have been a few people in the crowd who thought when Munster were 18–9 up that they would win, so it was great for the players to work that out themselves, especially after two close defeats against Toulouse.

“That will give them a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.

“In terms of the league table, we knew how important the weekend’s games were. We have managed to move up on the table and that’s important. But it is very tight this year and it’s going to be a tremendous second half of the season.

“We know that the Irish teams will lose points over the next couple of weeks as they play each other, so we have an opportunity now over our next three games to make sure we play as well as we did in the second half for the whole 80 minutes.”

With the top six teams separated by just nine points in the Guinness Pro 12 table, Townsend believes the battle for a top-four play-off place is a six-way fight.

He added: “I think Connacht are a really good team as well. They pushed Leinster, so I would say six teams are currently in there.

“Munster have shown what a quality side they are. Leinster did not have the greatest of starts, but there are bound to be back. Ospreys are very good, too.”

SCOTSMAN TABLET AND IPHONE APPS

• Download your free 30-day trial for our iPad, Android and Kindle apps

• Keep up to date with all aspects of Scottish life with The Scotsman iPhone app, completely free to download and use