Home semi-final the target as in-your-face display delights Cusiter

Glasgow Warriors skipper Chris Cusiter was well aware of the significance of this result. Apart altogether from it being Glasgow’s first win over Munster in Ireland since 2008, it also propelled them into fourth place in the RaboDirect Pro12 table.

With a game in hand over Munster and Ulster, three and five points adrift respectively, there’s a real possibility of upsetting the Irish dominance and securing a home semi-final. That ambition will become more realistic if they beat Scottish rivals Edinburgh in that additional fixture.

But the real joy for Cusiter for now must have been the way his side set about destroying an out-of-sorts Munster with a typical in-your-face Scottish performance. With a smile, Cusiter recalled how his team had been able to do a number on Munster, barely a week after the Heineken Cup specialists had done the exact same to Toulouse in a European quarter-final.

“We know the record that they have here,” he said.

“They haven’t lost at home this season. We haven’t won here since 2008 but you take each game on its merits. We felt we’d been playing well and building up momentum. I suppose to get them after a huge game that they had last week was probably fortuitous for us but, that said, I thought we were relentless the pressure we put on them, the line speed we had in defence, the way we took the game to them.

“You can’t come here and be passive and see what they’ve got because they have got so much momentum if you’re on the back foot they’ll score eventually and that’s what we talked about.

“In the first half I could feel we were clinging on a little bit. We were scrapping and scrambling and making little mistakes but keeping them out. I thought it was important to go in at half-time with that kind of lead and we knew they’d have to throw everything at us. The first 10 minutes of the second half was really good for us and we weathered the storm a bit. We held on to the ball for a wee while and were probably a bit unlucky not to get the bonus point try eventually.”

The words of warning for Munster is that no team has won an away semi-final in this competition and Glasgow now target one of the top two spots that Munster had held until the weekend.

On the other hand they might just do Munster a favour too, Cusiter explaining that the coming weekend is of crucial importance.

“We have Ulster at home on Friday night. They’re playing well and that’s a huge game. You just have to keep winning. The pressure’s on but it’s at this time of the year that you want to peak.”