The Scotstoun crowd seemed a little confused a half an hour into Glasgow’s European Rugby Champions Cup opener against Northampton on Saturday.
20-3 down – and that a somewhat generous scoreline on the balance of play – is out-of-the-ordinary for the home crowd, a fair proportion of whom are relatively new to rugby.
Do we boo? Do we shout at the boys? Having watched their team win 23 out of the last 25 games at home, they just weren’t accustomed to seeing them being thoroughly outclassed, and the result was a sort of stunned silence.
Although there was a rally and the English visitors eventually won “only” 25-16, Glasgow’s European aspirations – along with much of the rest of the PRO12 on the second weekend of European competition – were almost extinguished just after being lit.
Sure, there’s five games left. But Glasgow must now win home and away against the Scarlets, and will finish their campaign with a triple header in successive weeks in January of Racing 92 (probably augmented by a certain Dan Carter by that time) away, Northampton away and Racing at home. If you think they can garner the probable 18 to 19 points from that schedule to qualify as one of the best runners-up, your sunny optimism is unquenchable.
Head coach Gregor Townsend doesn’t do tantrumming or hair-dryer tossing, and said he was “disappointed rather than angry” at the way his team had unexpectedly offered little of the challenge that they had expected to produce. But even the coach’s tendency to highlight positives wherever possible must have been strained to breaking point.
One of the positives Townsend concentrated on recently was that so many of his players were away at the World Cup (20 of his European squad, plus another handful since injured) playing at a high level had to be good for the club. In the long term perhaps, but it’s probably done for their European challenge straight off the bat.
Most of the World Cup players had, thanks to last week’s call-off in Paris, played as little as one full game since returning to the club, and the tried and tested combinations were far less accurate than usual. Townsend has admitted before to the challenge of re-integrating players after their time away on international duty and it certainly seemed an issue on Saturday.
The club have been unlucky with injuries at hooker. Pat MacArthur’s departure with a jaw injury after less than 10 minutes meant recent recruit Shuma Mamukashvili, brought in two weeks ago due to long-term absences of Fraser Brown, Kevin Bryce and Finlay Gillies, was thrown in. By the way some of his lineout throws particularly on attacking ball went, the communication isn’t there yet.
Three promising attacking situations were lost on errant lineouts, and two more when Glasgow did secure the throw but were turned over trying to maul. For all that the scrummage struggled desperately all game against Northampton’s power – six penalties conceded, one yellow card and one push against the head – Glasgow still had ample opportunities to score points with setpiece ball in the Saints’ 22.
Add in that Northampton’s first two tries were down to Stuart Hogg errors – flailing at a high ball and then missing a one-on-one tackle – it can be clearly seen that even with the scrum disadvantage, Glasgow had the winning of the game if they played relatively error-free, but they were a long way from that.
Credit to Northampton for the pressure they exerted, and their targeting of Hogg, Finn Russell and Leone Nakarawa, correctly identified as key Warriors threats. Hogg was withdrawn after barely an hour, Russell had some moments but several errors, and Nakarawa was as anonymous as he’s been for some time.
The scrum issue, although not absolutely crucial on Saturday, still won’t go away. Glasgow lost three quality tight-heads for varying reasons this summer, and of the props who stayed, Mike Cusack and Ryan Grant have lost form and presence. Zander Fagerson is only 19 and is going to be great, but Townsend needs a bridge until the teenager garners the experience to deal with the gnarled veterans at loose head around Europe.
Glasgow therefore retire to the comforting environs of the PRO12 and their disappointed fans should see plenty of the fun they’re accustomed to next week when Treviso visit Scotstoun. But even if the Warriors sweep all before them in the domestic competition between now and January – and they have the squad to do just that – they’re still half a step behind the elite in Europe, which surely rankles with Townsend and his team.