Glasgow’s wretched start to the season continued, as again despite a bright start, they crumbled at key moments to leave with nothing.
After shown to be a soft touch in defence in the last two encounters against the Irish provinces, Glasgow reverted to type and stopped a familiar Munster maul-charge, but the next time the visitors went to touch, Billy Holland got himself over with relative ease from the maul drive.
Glasgow responded in style, a text-book play from the book of Toony, but rarely seen of late.
First-phase ball off the line-out went to Tommy Seymour in the middle of the park, he scythed past the Munster defence into the 22, and although his pass wide left went to ground, Robbie Nairn did well to pick up the slippery ball and feed Glenn Bryce in to finish in the left-corner.
Prior to Holland’s opening score, Nick Grigg had to be replaced by Brandon Thomson due to a head knock, and Thomson edged Warriors into the lead with a thumping penalty from half-way.
The young South African had taken something of a form slump last season after some bright came spots, so it was some nudge in gruelling conditions.
That was to be the only time the Warriors took the lead though, as the unbeaten Limerick-based side simply targeted Glasgow’s weaknesses, and profited at will.
Finnen Wycherley crossed the line from another maul to put Munster back in front, and despite a spell of pressure in the Munster half, Glasgow failed to add to the scoreboard.
Half-time: Glasgow Warriors 8 – 12 Munster
Given how the Munster maul had worked in the first half, Glasgow could’ve considered themselves lucky when Healy missed touch with the penalty, but a few minutes later he proved he’s far more accurate off the tee, and he put the Conference leaders further in front with a great kick.
Grant Stewart’s arrows had been a bit dodgy at the start, but he started finding his range and also utilising the giant Lewis Bean at the line-out.
Glasgow got numerous penalties in the danger-zone and Billy Holland went to the bin, and although Stewart quickly reduced the deficit, a touch of misfortune and then a yellow-card for captain Ryan Wilson, gave Munster the penalty.
They went for the line, Coombes crossed a few phases after the line-out, and just in case Glasgow hadn’t learned their lesson, Jean Kleyn got the bonus-point try via similar routes to rub salt in the wounds.
SRBlog Player of the Match: Seymour was looking dangerous before he had to be replaced – no replays of how he received his head knock were shown at the time – but it was the lesser knowns who provided the brightest sparks. Sean Kennedy probably just nicks it ahead of Glenn Bryce or Lewis Bean.
Referee: Adam Jones (WRU)
18 Responses
Quelle surprise. The underfunded second child goes from being able to compete and beat Exeter to being level on point with Zebre, 30 points behind the leaders.
Teams change, evolve, loose players and gain others. Warriors have lost Russell, Gray, Hogg, DTH, Nakarawa, Strauss, Dunbar, Bennett, Niko and others from their glory years and replaced them with inferior versions, or not replaced them at all or brought back 30 + year old versions of themselves to placate fans and hold on to season ticket sales. We have also been lumbered with players and staff already on the SRU payroll who are, in some instances, frankly not up to the job.
What happens now? We are now behind the curve and are stuck with a team that is no longer good enough to complete with the top 3 or 4 teams in the league. Mediocrity beckons. Attendance will slump, season ticket prices have doubled in 5/6 years and fans will get fed up being shat upon from a great height by the SRU to funds Dodsons pockets, the Edinburgh team and their new stadium. I don’t blame the Edinburgh team as something needed to be done after years in the wilderness but I don’t see why I should fund it.
Rant over.
No it’s not. It just showed you how far we have fallen when Ryan Wilson is made captain and is seen as one of our first pick back rows. Couldn’t get a game when we had Strauss and has the mentality of someone who fights in kebab shops. An embarrassment to himself and the club.
Rant over now……….
when Strauss was at Glasgow, under Townsend, the back row for every big game was the same 3 players (when fit). Wilson, Strauss and Harley. Every time.
Stupid YC last night though
That apart, enjoyed your rant TBH.
Probably could have stopped at under funded. Story begins and ends there. Scotland does not have the funds to bring in a De Allende for example. The attempt to get private funding a few seasons back into Glasgow and or Edinburgh failed, and that has been a killer, we kept falling further behind in funding. It failed because the then DoR wanted to retain too much control. National team over pro team prioritised. Which I get, but if it goes too far it kills both. Like the agreement to pro14 scheduling this season, and the extra test matches.
From that base the pandemic might all but end pro rugby in Scotland now.
Glasgow money does not fund Edinburgh, this is ludicrous. Edinburgh are funded by the income the national team generates, nothing more. Goodness gracious, the moment yous stop winning, the inferiority complex comes screaming back.
I’m not having a dig at Edinburgh (who I root for after the Warriors) or their fans and I’m aware that both teams receive central funding however you cannot run two teams equally from the same pot if you are looking to build one a new stadium. Additionally Edinburgh seem to have the means to retained their star players from smaller gate receipts whilst Glasgow have had to sell theirs.
As mentioned above, for the good of Scottish rugby, Edinburgh needed to end their wilderness years however this improvement has coincided with the Warriors having poorer recruitment when continued investment could have seen them continue at a competitively high level or even improve.
Get the chip off your shoulder Chloe. As FuF says, both teams are partly funded by income the national team generates and each entity then also has ticket/season ticket income, business sponsorship, merchandising etc but I’m not sure it’s clear how much of that additional income is controlled centrally – at one point there was certainly a message coming from Glasgow that money raised in Glasgow, stays in Glasgow.
This shouldn’t be a fight to the bottom as we’re all pulling in the same direction and I’d be surprised if the new ground for Edinburgh was being offset by reduced player budget for either team – that would be completely self defeating.
Fed up flanker – it’s hard to take your post too seriously when it totally ignores the disastrous impact of COVID on both Scottish teams, halting their badly needed recruitment but most significantly extending the international window whilst simultaneously preventing players being sent back to clubs from the wider squad. What was always going to be a transitional year for Glasgow has become a crisis, but not everything is conspiracy – Scottish pro-teams are just uniquely badly placed to cope with these challenges.
FF Fair point well made……………….to an extent.
All the teams that have beaten us have the same or similar issues you raise to a greater or lesser degree and to be honest this happens every international window. My general point about recruitment and a decline in quality however pre dates Covid-19.
Overall it would only be a conspiracy theory if it wasn’t based on fact and the fact is that the Warriors recruitment has been generally poor for the last 2/3 years and the team and moreover the squad (with a couple of exceptions) is not of the same overall quality, or so the voices in my head tell me. I can only therefore place the blame at the door of the SRU or Russian interference.
Wison’s YC last night (whilst still in with a chance) was beyond stupid, actually overall I thought it was a rousing display given the unavailable list. Bryce & Kennedy played well in the backs, Gordon, Harley, Stewart did well in the forwards (Stewart gave away a daft pen)
Glasgow have been very unfortunate, not only losing their main players to Scotland (even ones like G Horne and Jones who aren’t playing for either) but also their “marquee” players are constantly unavailable. Richie Gray is always on the physio table and Nakarawa seems to be following the trend of “working from home” in Fiji.
That said, Glasgow’s B team (international-less team) used to be one of the best in the leagues and the internationals used to have to really fight their way back in but something is just not clicking now. Whether it’s the academy system or the head coach I don’t know but the SRU are running the risk of killing something that was beginning to flourish in Scotland’s football city.
I fear once fans are allowed back in to stadiums, people won’t notice too much of a difference at Scotstoun.
lets get the facts out first.
Richie Gray isn’t on the physio’s table, he has recurring concussion issues.
Nakawara has a knee injury and is still weeks away. He was stuck in Fji under covid, returned from Fiji before going straight to France for Fiji’s training camp.
The current coach has no budget, 22 players missing and the legacy is that of lack of cash and poor recruitment by the previous much revered head coach. No coach could do much with that situation.
You can get away with a few, maybe a handful of the 23 last night in a match day squad. Not all of them.
Hard to fully give an opinion on Glasgow or Wilson. Too many of their best players are missing for various reasons….but…both have done little to convince anyone they aren’t regressing.
I wasn’t convinced Wilson was the right coach for Glasgow…..and either with Scotland or Glasgow has done nothing to improve my opinion as yet.
I hate to do a man down when he is new to the job and as you mention his best players are missing………so I won’t.
What I would say however is that he was on the SRU payroll and was apparently slotted in without any other option being considered. He therefore is either the cheapo biscuit tin option or exactly the right man to take Glasgow forward. I’m sure we all have our own opinion however I’m hoping against hope that it’s a bit of both.
It’s easy to freefall into despair at the Glasgow performances this year, but I think COVID has had a disproportionate impact on our ability to be competitive. When we have all our internationals fit and available, then I’d argue we’re still going to competitive.
Under Rennie our recruitment was poor – not as many financial risks as under the Townsend era perhaps, but a fair few rugby risks that simply didn’t work out, but more importantly we also saw a number of younger players who we had expected to push through and become big players simply fall off the radar. The failure to back up depth at 10 after Finn left, and then failure to secure a fullback to replace Hogg sits squarely on the shoulders of the previous regime and the SRU.
Losing genuine international quality and hoping to plaster over the cracks with journeymen or players playing out of position was never going to be a good look, but we could try and give the SRU benefit of doubt here. They would have planned for Wilson to succeed Rennie for some time, it’s probably reasonable to assume that Wilson was going to be given the time and funds after this years six nations to build the squad he wanted. In some respects, the lack of recruitment in Rennie’s final 10-12 months then makes a lot more sense. Then along comes the ‘Rona and BOOM! Wilson gets told he has no money, a recruitment freeze (unless he can wangle the odd emergency loan deal) and any of the decent players still left will be taken away for the majority of the season for six nations part deux, an adhoc international tournament then another 6 nations…and just to rub salt in the wound, even when not playing in the match day squad, you still can’t have them back. That’s brutal for Glasgow given where we are as a squad.
The speed of recovery for Glasgow will be dependant on a number of factors: 1. What funds will be available for playing squads post COVID; 2. What will the player market look like post COVID; 3. What exposure Wilson give to younger players now to try and identify those ready to step up. The first two are largely out of his control, but I’d really like to see him make a deliberate shift in focus to treat this season as a development opportunity for Academy players. If we’re going to lose anyway, I’d rather see young players get a crack. You could argue that getting pumped every week wouldn’t be good for their confidence, but if they understand the process and their place in that, then I don’t see that experience being negative. I mean, surely that’s got to be better than watching us getting pumped each week from the stand.
It has to be said, given the time Cockers has had to build depth at Edinburgh, the current malaise in their performances is probably a lot more worrying.
Excellent post! My Cardiff friend is sure we have a very good coach. Wilson has very poor resources to work with atm.
Danny Wilson does seem to have the ability to underwhelm as a coach…
Presumably he has his qualities but he’d better bring them to bear soon, before he gets another relocation allowance.
You can bemoan the lack of quality retention at Glasgow in the last few years but several of the players mentioned wanted to leave anyway and inconceivable to think that several of them were not given lucrative offers by the SRU (by our Relatively modest standards ). Fact is Russell is reportedly on some thing like upwards of 700k at racing and there’s no way the SRU would compete with that. Same goes for Naka when he left and so on and so on… Edinburgh managed to retain Mata which was a decent bit of business but will likely leave soon, the likes of McInally/Duhan etc would not cost nearly as much to retain as the likes of Russell, Hogg etc, Glasgow almost victims of their on success over that period when several good players came though at once.
Not to forget that signing one of the best coaches in the world (or was viewed at the time) in Rennie would have been expensive. the biggest mistake Glasgow have made is blowing a fair bit of their budget on bringing the likes of Gray and Nakarawa back who are either past it/ looking for a payday.
It’s unfair to say that Edinburgh don’t deserve a new stadium. Going to an empty 60,000 seater stadium while Glasgow get to create a decent atmosphere at an appropriately sized venue, how much have the SRU paid in rent over the years to facilitate Glasgow?
agree with most of your post RJ.
There is a marked contrast between Nakawara and Mata. Cockerill had a public rant about selling his kid’s kidney if that was what it took to retain him. That worked,
SRU caved in. By comparison SRU accepted a transfer fee for Nakawara while still under contract.
and to add to the comment about Rennie costing a lot. He did, but not out of player budget.
For those who criticise Wilson, what he has to work with is Rennie’s legacy, the coach who turned up late for his first season and b*ggered off early from his 3rd.
In herited a very good squad, first season a total write off, 2nd ok after a late run, 3rd a write off. And left this. Some legacy