What Franco Smith has made of the recent underwhelming Glasgow run

Franco Smith is unfazed by an underwhelming Glasgow ending to the regulation United Rugby Championship season as he fully expects his team to rise to the big occasion against Stormers in Saturday’s play-off quarter-final.

Warriors go into the showdown with the South African side on the back of consecutive defeats against Bulls and Lions and an unconvincing victory over bottom-of-the-table Zebre.

Smith is confident his team, who finished fourth in the URC table, are ready to regain their best form when it matters most. “Everything must be kept in perspective,” said the head coach.

“We reached a period in the season where we had already qualified and done what needed to be done. Last week’s result wasn’t going to change much about this week. The focus from the start of the week has been really good.

“It was special this week, you can see the players are eager to get out and express themselves. For the last couple of weeks, they have felt ready for the big occasion and hopefully they can channel that energy into a smart performance against Stormers.”

Glasgow, who welcome back captain Kyle Steyn, are buoyed by the knowledge that they won 20-9 in their last meeting with Stormers at Scotstoun in November. “It was good to have won that game,” said Smith.

“It is obviously better to use a victory rather than a loss against them in preparation for that game but it does not affect much in our preparation this week.

“We looked back at it a little bit as a coaching group to see what was done and how it worked but that’s not going to influence this game at all.

“This is going to be a completely new challenge because it’s a one-off match, it’s knockout rugby, it’s not going to be as liberal, I would think, as it was in the previous game.”

Stormers finished fifth in the URC, one place behind Glasgow, and Smith is anticipating a tough test. “They had a rough start and they dropped some games which they were used to winning but they are still the finalists of last year and the team that won it the year before.

“They have still got the same players there, the same quality. They have got a lot of Springboks across the board, their coaching team has been with them for a while, so they have good continuity. They have got a solid platform so it’s going to be a tough ask to come out on top.”