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The 'breath of fresh air' that has reinvigorated Glasgow
By PA
Matt Fagerson believes Franco Smith has reinvigorated Glasgow as the Scotstoun club gears up for what could be a momentous end to the season. Warriors beat Scarlets 35-17 in Llanelli on Saturday to reach the Challenge Cup final for the first time and they will face Toulon in Dublin on May 19.
First, however, Smith’s side will host Irish outfit Munster in a URC play-off tie on Saturday and confidence is high. Scotland international Fagerson, 24, said of his head coach, who joined Glasgow last summer: “We have been building as a squad over the last two or three years, Franco coming in as a breath of fresh air has reinvigorated that.
“He has instilled quite a bit of belief and, in the pre-season especially, we knew exactly what he wanted from us. He demanded we were fit, we gave our all and were on the same page in every aspect of the game.
“That clarity and fitness in the squad at the minute is probably the best it has ever been. We are hitting great scores in the gym and coming to the last 20 minutes of games that is when it all matters.
“So he is a great guy, a great coach and everyone buys into what he wants to do. I think we are in a good place but it is week to week at the end of the season.
“It was a huge win in Llanelli and we are on a good run at the minute and the confidence is great. We have good squad rotation and we are developing into a winning team. But, as Franco alludes to all the time, we have not won anything yet, there is no trophy to show for it. So we are not taking our eyes off the prize.”
Fagerson insists it is not that hard to set aside thoughts of the upcoming European final against Toulon. He said: “Every week we stand up and give ourselves a round of applause and then that’s it done until the next week. We have done that throughout the whole year. All our focus is on Munster now.”
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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