Leinster defeat took Glasgow Warriors to ‘dark places’ but it won’t define us, says Stafford McDowall

Stafford McDowall believes Glasgow Warriors must use the hammering by Leinster at the end of the last campaign as “fuel” for pre-season.

Glasgow Warriors centre Stafford McDowall. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

The Scotstoun club lost 76-14 in the URC quarter-final in Dublin, a result that ultimately cost Danny Wilson his job and heralded the appointment of Franco Smith as the new head coach.

McDowall, the Warriors centre, likened the situation to Liverpool’s 9-0 destruction of Bournemouth inasmuch as the Anfield side went into the match on the back of a frustrating defeat by Manchester United.

Leinster played Glasgow a week after they had been pipped by La Rochelle in the Champions Cup final and took out their frustrations on Wilson’s side.

“We have used it in the right way,” said McDowall, who believes Glasgow will play with more attacking intent under Smith. “We have not let it hang over us or dwell on the past but we also know that is not a representation of Glasgow Warriors or what we as a group are about.

“We have used it as the right kind of fuel to drive us on through some dark times in pre-season and it has been mentioned a couple of times but it has not been overbearing on us in the way that we have not been allowed to forget about it.

“They were a very good team and coming off a Champions Cup final loss the weekend before. I was listening to [Bournemouth manager] Scott Parker at the weekend and Jurgen Klopp said to him this was the worst time to play Liverpool as they had come off the back of a bad result and itching to get going again.”