'Nothing is broken': Glasgow Warriors push towards home quarter-final not derailed by South African trip

Glasgow Warriors are on the hunt for a home play-off in the URC.

The Warriors’ ten-game unbeaten run came to an end when they went 35-24 in Johannesburg on Saturday, but they are still fourth in the table, and if they maintain or improve upon that position they will be at Scotstoun in the last eight. With matches against Zebre, Munster, Scarlets and Dragons still to come in their regular-season programme, Carolan is confident that they can bounce back quickly from that loss in South Africa.

“We’ll dust ourselves down,” he said on Tuesday. “We just haven’t come out on the right side of the result on this occasion, but we know nothing is broken. The fixes are easy and we’ll look to put them right again on Friday.

“We’ve got four games left, three of them are at home, all against teams who are below us in the table. It’s in our hands. I don’t know if winning three out of four games will give us a home quarter-final – that might depend upon how other results go. But it starts this Friday with Zebre.

“We’ve just got to focus on what has got us to this point in the table and why we’re currently sitting on fourth. We’ve worked bloody hard to get there and the hard work is really only starting now.”

Glasgow were without 12 Scotland internationals for the game against the Lions, and the majority are likely to be missing again when they welcome Zebre to Scotstoun. Nonetheless, even the return of three or four would come as a welcome boost, and Carolan is hopeful of getting some who have not played much of late.

“We’re still waiting for it to be confirmed exactly, but it’s possible that any of the guys who haven’t necessarily started [or] any guys who need game time [will be released],” he added. “So probably George Horne, Ollie Smith, and maybe Fraser Brown or Jamie Bhatti if they’re judged to need more game time.”