Gregor Townsend braced for Thomond trip
Having beaten Leicester Tigers in impressive style last Friday in their Champions Cup Pool 1 opener at Scotstoun, Townsend’s Warriors earned the right to be brimming with confidence travelling to Limerick this weekend to try and repeat their PRO12 victory at Thomond Park in 2014-15.
The tragic death of Anthony Foley, though, has meant a recalibration for the Scots, who will now enter a stadium filled with grief at the loss of a favourite son. Glasgow will clearly want to continue their winning ways but such an atmosphere would be as beyond the experience of the visiting players and coaches as it is for the home side.
Townsend, who on Wednesday paid a warm tribute to his late contemporary Foley, said of the regular Thomond Park atmosphere: “It is a different level because the stadium gets full and they come out with such a good European record. It brings the best out of them. There will be poignancy, but there will be a lot of noise. There will be a feeling of togetherness. Munster have dominated European rugby and have had some great wins. You’ll see lots of red jerseys in the crowd and you’ll see the team come together. We are expecting a difficult game.”
There will naturally be an onus on Glasgow’s senior players, including co-captains Jonny Gray and Henry Pyrgos, to lead by example, Townsend added. “Both of them and other leaders. One of the key aspects last week was how leaders stepped up throughout the team.
“We have people in key decision-making positions. Finn (Russell) had an excellent game and Josh Strauss played his best game of the season and probably the calendar year. Rob Harley, Ryan Wilson, Stuart Hogg all played really well.
“It will be important in any away game that these guys talk and work out what’s happening during the game. We have prepared really well, as we did last week, with three days of training and staying in a hotel. Preparation is important but it’s about how the players react to what is happening during the game that will win us the game. They did that really well against Leicester because they worked out where we could pressure them and where we have to be strong. We have to do that again this weekend.”
After years of underachievement in Europe, the last time they reached the knockout stages was in 1997-98, the Warriors finally look well placed in Townsend’s final campaign before assuming the the role of Scotland head coach, to live up to their potential on the highest stage, and for the former fly-half that means following the examples set by Irish provinces.
“Every year we have tried to focus even more in Europe. That has meant learning from teams like Leinster and Munster. We had a Munster player (James Downey) playing with us a couple of seasons ago and we picked his brains on how Thomond Park gets turned into such a great environment on Champions Cup occasions.
“This year we have added another element. Obviously, we had a great week last week, but learning from defeats help as well. We looked at what we needed to do to win away at Northampton last year and Bath the season before. We also learn from our victories, asking what we got right against teams like Racing. These are Test match-equivalent games. You have to play your very best. We have learned but it is always going to get tougher because the opposition are very good.”
One of the keys to the success of Irish provinces was, for Townsend, learning from their experiences.
“Munster won it twice but they lost in a final to Northampton and another final to Leicester. They had to win big games away from home in France against Castres and Toulouse. They created real momentum. Their mindset was ‘this is European rugby, this is where we come alive’.
“If you’ve won before you go in with huge confidence. That’s what we have to do. We have won in France and we have won big games at times, but we have to make sure that what we learn from the disappointments of the last few years and get improvements when it counts.”
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