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Franco Smith not getting carried away after Glasgow Warriors' Champions Cup boilover
By PA
Glasgow Warriors coach Franco Smith is remaining grounded despite seeing his side open the Champions Cup pool stage with an impressive six-try, bonus-point win over Sale Sharks.
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George Horne was the star man as the Scotland scrum-half notched a hat-trick of tries in a 38-19 win against the Premiership side at Scotstoun.
Smith, though, warned against any premature celebrations with just one match played so far in a potentially long campaign.
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The Glasgow head coach said: “It’s obviously a good start. But we didn’t start that well last year against Northampton and still got to the round of 16.
“There’s a lot still to happen, also for the teams that lost (their opening match) in our pool. So, I’ll be reluctant at this stage to get overly excited.”
Next for Glasgow is a difficult trip to play Toulon in France next Sunday, a reprise of last season’s meeting that Warriors won comfortably at home.
Smith added: “It will be good to go there and back up last year’s performance. They are a tough team. They’ve got some real quality players. We know that. They’re different from what we faced (against Sale on Saturday night).
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“So, it’s about how we adapt, how we change. Our player group must be managed right. And we must make sure the squad can help us maintain this intensity, this enthusiasm and this creativity.
“We will see how the guys look on Monday. And, obviously, I’ve got a plan. It’s going to be important to keep the momentum building. But, at the same time, we have to make sure that everybody is fresh and continues contributing.”
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I think Franco Smith is a helluva coach and if he has any ambition of going International should put his name in the hat for the upcoming Welsh and/or English jobs.
Wales would be a good fit for an SA coach. Similar philosophies.
He’s far too smart to head for Wales, they’ve got years in the lower levels in front of them, a union that is frankly incompetent and financial problems that will not go away. As for England, absolutely no chance they will even consider him, their egos are way too big to consider a coach ripping it up at glasgow.
I’d wager his possible moves are either to be taken into the SA team under Rassie, although JN is probably in pole position for the day Rassie eventually steps down, or more likely, succeed GT with Scotland.
That said, he doesn’t need to rush to go anywhere with the success he’s having at Glasgow. The more he achieves, the better his prospects with SA, particularly if he can somehow manage to trump JN’s Leinster in the URC and perhaps even the Champions Cup.
Why would he go to wales . Currently a shadow of themselves. He was the Italy coach for a time and couldn’t do much with them . He’s a success at Glasgow because he has a squad of great players who want to play his style of rugby
Wales have had more of a NZ philosophy: easily historically the best/most skillful 4 nations team. The physicality came in with Gatland and reflected that crop of players.
Their culture and philosophy are skillful attacking teams.