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Glasgow Warriors Head Coach Gregor Townsend reckons his side are hitting top form ahead of their crunch European Rugby Champions Cup clash with Montpellier. - 12/01/2015 15:55
Glasgow Warriors Head Coach Gregor Townsend reckons his side are hitting top form ahead of their crunch European Rugby Champions Cup clash with Montpellier.
The men from Scotstoun looked on-course for the quarter-finals until they came up against four-time European champions Toulouse in the back-to-back Pool four fixtures. They lost 19-11 out in France before being edged out 12-9 at home, but a losing bonus point keeps their qualification hopes alive.
They are level with Bath on ten points after Mike Ford’s men picked up two crucial victories against Glasgow’s opponents Montpellier, who prop up the pool with just two bonus points to their name so far.
But they have seen an upturn in fortunes since World Cup winning coach Jake White took the helm. In his very first match he saw his side overcome reigning European Champions Toulon, but they failed to back that up with an away defeat to Oyonnax.
Montpellier are playing for pride in pool four but Glasgow an still claim their place in the last eight by way of best runners-up if they can win their final two matches. They will be confident of overcoming the French side at Scotstoun after they clinched a 15-13 victory at the Altrad Stadium in round two, then it could all come down to a crunch tie at the Rec against Bath, who travel to Toulouse on Sunday.
Townsend said: “It was great to get a win in front of our home fans against Scarlets but we know Montpellier will be a different game, they play differently to Scarlets and will pose different threats.
“Not only was it great to get a win after the defeat to Edinburgh, I think that was the best we have played for a number of weeks.The first half was probably the best we have played since Bath.
“I think it was an ideal game for Mike, there was always going to be a lot of scrums and he worked really hard. He might have not been able to carry as much as the other guys on the field but I thought all four props were outstanding.”
Match Facts
- Glasgow Warriors are unbeaten in the three meetings between these two sides, winning two and drawing the other.
- Montpellier have lost their last four away games in the competition and also lost on their one trip to Scotland.
- Montpellier (9) have won fewer turnovers than any other side this season whilst only Wasps (40) and Toulon (40) have managed more turnovers won than Glasgow (39).
- No player made more carries in the last round of fixtures than Montpellier’s Alex Tulou; he made 21 carries, five more than the next top carrier in Round 4.
- Leone Nakarawa has successfully made 15 offloads this season, at least three more than anyone else.
DTH van der Merwe scored a hat-trick but Glasgow Warriors were still left to rue missing out on a bonus-point against Montpellier. - 18/01/2015 15:01
DTH van der Merwe scored a hat-trick but Glasgow Warriors were still left to rue missing out on a bonus-point against Montpellier.
The Canadian international became only the second Glasgow player to claim a treble in the Champions Cup.
Yet that was still not enough for Gregor Townsend’s side to claim maximum points at Scotstoun but sets up a make-or-break clash at Bath in the final round.
Glasgow knew they had to take all the points on offer against the pool’s bottom side if they were to kick-start their European campaign after back-to-back defeats to Toulouse.
They got the early score they craved when van der Merwe raced onto Alex Dunbar’s pass in the 12th minute.
Dunbar drew two defenders before off-loading to the Canada wing amid claims of a forward pass.
But Warriors were guilty of lacking composure in key areas as they chased the try-bonus before securing the victory.
It came back to hurt them when Montpellier captain Thibault Privat opted to kicked a penalty to touch.
His pack rumbled past Glasgow’s forwards from the resulting lineout and lock Thibualt got the final touch over the line.
Lucas added the conversion to his early penalty for a 10-7 lead they managed to hold onto to half-time despite losing prop Pat Cilliers to the bin on 33 minutes.
Glasgow dominated as Strauss, Leone Nakarawa and Niko Matawalu all tore into Montpellier but could not find that telling pass.
That frustration continued until van der Merwe got the breakthrough on 57 minutes.
Glasgow turned down kicks at goal and were rewarded when the wing broke Lucas’ tackle to score his second. Russell converted to lead 14-10.
Montpellier showed glimpses through scrum-half Teddy Iribaren but wing Lucas Dupont became the second Frenchman binned after Jonny Gray’s burst.
It took Glasgow just two minutes to capitalise on having an extra man. Russell stepped through three tackles before van der Merwe spun out of Wynand Olivier’s tackle for his third.
That gave Warriors 11 minutes to chase the fourth try and clinch a bonus point but handling errors saw them fall short.
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