Townsend hails Glasgow’s response to falling behind

IT WAS a relieved Gregor Townsend who addressed the press after watching his side come from behind against Cardiff to seal the win and steal the points in the final quarter of the match.

“I thought we played some good rugby in the first half,” said the coach after a closely-fought affair at Scotstoun in which his side scored ten points without reply after the break to overturn a 15-12 deficit at the interval.

“When we got the ball we got over the gain line well, we were over-eager a couple of times maybe and came off our feet but I thought that the effort in defence was really good.

“We just seemed to lose our way a little bit in the second half.

“We didn’t play the conditions as well as we might and to go three points down inside the last 15 minutes, I thought ‘this is going to be tough to come back from’ but there was a great response from the players.

“It was a well-executed move from Tommy (Seymour) and then to hold out at the very end was very relieving.”

There were a slew of penalties conceded by both teams on the night but Townsend put Glasgow’s indiscipline down, at least in part, to “over-enthusiasm”.

Cardiff suffered two yellow cards to one from the home team and even that one came late in the day so that Glasgow were short-handed for just the final four minutes.

The injury news was encouraging for Townsend, especially with Al Kellock reporting that his ankle was not seriously hurt, which is just as well.

Glasgow lost at least two lineouts in the second half and looked a little rudderless at times in the absence of their long-standing leader.