Glasgow go 'all guns blazing' for European success

Glasgow Warriors have touched great heights under Franco Smith's astute leadership. Now the next step is to truly make their mark in the Champions Cup.

A European Challenge Cup final appearance in Smith's first season and a United Rugby Championship title win in his second proved Warriors' capacity to punch above their weight.

As with the Scotland national team, there is a sense that while Glasgow have made great strides over the past decade or so, there is a gulf still to be bridged to the elite sides.

Warriors have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup three times, under Gregor Townsend, Dave Rennie and Smith last season. On all three occasions they were completely dismantled – going down 38-13 to Saracens in 2017, 56-27 to the same opponents in 2019 and suffering a 52-0 mauling at the hands of Leinster in April.

After a stunning start to their European campaign this time around, with bonus-point victories away to Sale and at home over Toulouse, there is growing optimism that perhaps this time Glasgow can break through their glass ceiling.

Wins over Clermont Auvergne in France on Saturday and Saracens at home the following weekend is a tall order, but by no means out of reach. Manage that and a potential route of home fixtures all the way to the semi-finals could open up.

"I suppose the ball is in our court now," said Glasgow assistant coach Nigel Carolan.

"Because we got five points against Sale, five points against Toulouse, it's certainly changed the perspective on the competitions as well.

"The URC is important, but we've kind of done that the hard way. We know if we're in even third or fourth, you've got to go away, maybe in a semi-final. We've been there and done that, that's not foreign territory for us anymore.

"But the opportunity to get maybe a home round of 16 [in the Champions Cup], possibly a home quarter-final, there's a lot riding and we won't look any further than this weekend.

"We rested some firepower for this week and we're going all guns blazing."

Smith has been at pains all season to "keep expectation out of our environment" as he reshapes his side by blooding new talent after the summer departures of key players such as Tom Jordan, Sebastian Cancelliere and Henco Venter.

However, the thrilling nature of their comeback victory over Toulouse, rallying from 21-0 down to beat the six-times European champions, has raised expectations that Glasgow might just be able to mix it with the big boys at the business end of the competition.

"There was always a question at the start of the season, certainly when you lose certain players, which you regard as being frontliners, is do we have the depth to fight on two fronts?" Carolan said.

"But all that changed after the Toulouse win. I think it proved that maybe we can.

"I think it's important that we go over to Clermont and we don't protect the lead that we have, we don't go into our shells.

"We've got to fire shots right from the start because 10 points at the moment is nothing to protect.

"If you want a home round of 16, a home quarter, we've got to put the best game out there right from the start. So we've got to be brave in terms of how we play and make sure that we're not within ourselves."

Since the shock 23-0 URC loss to Scarlets in November, Glasgow have picked up steam with five straight victories, including a derby double over Edinburgh and those two statement wins in Europe.

There is a feelgood factor around the club at the moment and that could be aided by the return this weekend of two of their big players from injury.

"We're fortunate that Huw Jones is back training, Kyle Rowe is back training, so they're going to certainly come into the mix," Carolan said.

"They've worked really hard on their rehab, so they're very close to return. Very close.

"They've just got to check off one or two things in terms of contact, but they've been on the field, it's just that they haven't done everything so far.

"It's going to be touch and go that one or both of them could be involved later in the week. And we hold our breath that maybe both can."