Pride and peer pressure will prevent Glasgow Warriors repeating Sunday’s first half implosion as they host Exeter Chiefs at Scotstoun in their second Heineken Cup pool match, believes Dougie Hall.
Blitzed by a rampant Toulon in the first 40 minutes on the Mediterranean coast, the Warriors are aware the Chiefs did much the same to the Cardiff Blues earlier in the day and will be brimming with confidence in their direct, quick-moving gameplan.
However, the veteran Scotland hooker knows well the power of pride which brought the team back from the abyss to salvage a bonus point in Toulon and the fact the squad system at Scotstoun lets no player rest.
“Gregor Townsend (head coach) is taking pride in our performances but our squad is now so strong if you do put in a poor one, not only will you be dropped for the next match but you could find yourself out of the starting line-up for weeks if the guy who comes in does well.
“With the competition we have for all places at the club, you have to always be at the top of your game. With that in mind, there was much to do in the second half on Sunday.
“What got us back into it was pride,” said Hall.
“We knew it was one of those games where you get to half-time and realise you haven’t shown up. But we had a half to go out there and salvage a bit of pride and though we didn’t win, we showed we can compete at this level with Toulon.
“It’s not a case of thinking we lost to the champions as we went there fully expecting to challenge and give it a real go.
But the Heineken Cup is too good a competition to have an off five minutes, let alone 40.”
Exeter play a band of fast-moving rugby not entirely familiar to those accustomed to the Aviva Premiership, meaning there can be no complacency and no let-up in the challenge for the Warriors.
“The Chiefs were brilliant at the weekend from what I’ve seen and they will really want to put on another display again,” Hall added. “It will be a test of our focus to make sure does not happen to us.
“What we need to take from our Rabo performances is getting back to the basics. Our ball security wasn’t up to it at the weekend and Toulon really punished us for every mistake we made.”
A win on Sunday will send Glasgow into the second phase of matches in December with five points and they still have Toulon to play at Scotstoun in the January.