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'Last year we got the better of them so I'd imagine they are coming here looking for a big win'
By PA
Glasgow defence coach Kenny Murray was delighted to make it two games without conceding a try but warned his side must improve their discipline when they face Leinster.
Warriors recorded a third consecutive United Rugby Championship win when they beat Zebre 17-6 in Italy on Saturday.
First-half tries from Lewis Bean and Sione Tuipulotu put the visitors in control and they limited their hosts to two penalties from Carlo Canna. A Duncan Weir penalty was all either side could muster after the break.
Murray told glasgowwarriors.org: “It’s good to see our defence has held strong – that’s two weeks in a row we haven’t conceded a try which is a real bonus going into the Leinster game.
“Zebre are a physical side but I thought we defended pretty well for most of the game. There were a couple of line breaks from our kick chase which put us under pressure but overall we stood up to them really well.
“We knew they had real threats across the park, our whole theme this week was around caging Canna and not giving him space which I thought we did well for most of the game.”
Murray added: “In the second half, our discipline let us down a little bit. We conceded around eight or nine penalties in the second half. We have to be a lot better there – particularly against Leinster who will put you under pressure.
“It’s going to be our toughest game of the season. They are playing well and are scoring a lot of points. This week they brought back in their British and Irish Lions so they have a really strong squad to pick from.
“At the end of last year we got the better of them at Scotstoun so I’d imagine they are coming here looking for a big win. We know what’s coming and we’ll have to be at our best to beat the best.”
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Latest Comments
The only benefit of the draft idea is league competitiveness. There would be absolutely no commercial value in a draft with rugby’s current interest levels.
I wonder what came first in america? I’m assuming it’s commercial aspect just built overtime and was a side effect essentially.
But the idea is not without merit as a goal. The first step towards being able to implement a draft being be creating it’s source of draftees. Where would you have the players come from? NFL uses college, and players of an age around 22 are generally able to step straight into the NFL. Baseball uses School and kids (obviously nowhere near pro level being 3/4 years younger) are sent to minor league clubs for a few years, the equivalent of the Super Rugby academies. I don’t think the latter is possible legally, and probably the most unethical and pointless, so do we create a University scene that builds on and up from the School scene? There is a lot of merit in that and it would tie in much better with our future partners in Japan and America.
Can we used the club scene and dispose of the Super Rugby academies? The benefit of this is that players have no association to their Super side, ie theyre not being drafted elshwere after spending time as a Blues or Chiefs player etc, it removes the negative of investing in a player just to benefit another club. The disadvantage of course is that now the players have nowhere near the quality of coaching and each countries U20s results will suffer (supposedly).
Or are we just doing something really dirty and making a rule that the only players under the age of 22 (that can sign a pro contract..) that a Super side can contract are those that come from the draft? Any player wanting to upgrade from an academy to full contract has to opt into the draft?
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You’ve got the perfect structure to run your 1A and 1B on a quota of club representation by Province. Have some balance/reward system in place to promote and reward competitiveness/excellence. Say each bracket has 12 teams, each province 3 spots, given the Irish Shield winner once of the bottom ranked provinces spots, so the twelve teams that make up 1A are 4 from Leinster, 3 each from Connacht and Munster, and 2 from Ulster etc. Run the same rule over 1B from the 1A reults/winner/bottom team etc. I’d imagine IRFU would want to keep participation to at least two teams from any one province but if not, and there was reason for more flexibility and competitveness, you can simply have other ways to change the numbers, like caps won by each province for the year prior or something.
Then give those clubs sides much bigger incentive to up their game, say instead of using the Pro sides for the British and Irish Cup you had going, it’s these best club sides that get to represent Ireland. There is plenty of interest in semi pro club cup competitions in europe that Ireland can invest in or drive their own creation of.
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