ERCC: Pool 4, Round 4 - Glasgow Warriors v Toulouse

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Glasgow Warriors v Stade Toulousain
Pool 4, Round 4
Saturday 13 December 2014, KO 13:00
Scotstoun Stadium, The Land of No Salad

Live on Sky Sports / BeIN

Referee Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch Judge 1 Matthew Carley (England)
Touch Judge 2 Paul Dix (England)
Fourth Official Tom Nicol (Scotland)
TMO David Grashoff (England)

Citing Commissioner Jeff Mark (Wales)

A. Teams:

1. Glasgow Warriors

Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland, Richie Vernon, Alex Dunbar, Tommy Seymour; Finn Russell, Henry Pyrgos; Ryan Grant, Pat MacArthur, Jon Welsh, Tim Swinson, Jonny Gray, Ryan Wilson, Rob Harley, Josh Strauss (capt).

Replacements: Fraser Brown, Gordon Reid, Euan Murray, Leone Nakarawa, Niko Matawalu, Duncan Weir, Peter Horne, Sean Lamont.

2. Toulouse

Clément Poitrenaud, Yoann Huget, Yann David, Gael Fickou, Maxime Médard; Jean-Marc Doussain, Sébastien Bézy; Gurthro Steenkamp, Corey Flynn, Census Johnston, Joe Tekori, Yoann Maestri, Yannick Nyanga, Thierry Dusautoir (capt), Louis Picamoles.

Replacements: Julien Marchand, Vasil Kakovin, Kisi Pulu, Romain Millo-Chluski, Gregory Lamboley, Luke McAlister, Vincent Clerc

B. Tournament Form:

1. Glasgow Warriors

7/12/14 - Toulouse 19 - 11 Glasgow

25/10/14 - Montpellier 13 - 15 Glasgow

18/10/14 - Glasgow 37 - 10 Bath

18/1/14 - Glasgow 8 - 15 Toulon

2. Toulouse

7/12/14 - Toulouse 19 - 11 Glasgow

25/10/14 - Bath 19 - 21 Toulouse

19/10/14 - Toulouse 30 - 23 Montpellier

5/4/14 - Munster 47 - 23 Toulouse

C. Head to Head

7 Played 7
1 Wins 6
6 Losses 1
0 Draws 0
10 Tries 24
9 Conversions 18
14 Penalties 16
1 Drop Goals 1
113 Points 204

Awesome defensive performance from Toulouse. Never lost their shape, great line speed and pressure and stealing Glasgow 5m lineout not once but twice was great work. Altho glasgow made a lot of mistakes the reason was that toulouse gave them no time and space. Should have brought the fijians on at the half as well.

Well done toulouse. Thats a good win for them.

Glasgow actually had a better game down in Toulouse and guess what, Nakarawa started.

This was the doubleheader against The Blues all over again, Glasgow didn't learn anything both from last week's game and last season which is the most disappointing.

Pressure got to Glasgow again. They are going to have to get on top of this if they are ever going to fulfil their potential. Finn Russell has looked as solid as you like with the boot until today and then went to jelly. Upped the tempo at the end, but you always knew a mistake was coming. Its a shame, we could have won both of those games, but Toulouse are not 4 times champions for nothing, they did what they needed to win, can't blame them for that!

Toulouse's defense was irresistible, Glasgow were too hesitant around the ruck. Bath game even more massive now, they will have a front row and a back row for that game - unlike last match. Bennet is being missed. I daren't look at the Edinburgh match...

Lamont cameo has to be up there with one of the worst cameo in recent years:

T/A Pts K/P/R MR CB DB OL TO Tack LO Pen Y/R
0/0 0 0/1/1 3 0 0 0 3 3/0 0/0 0 0/0

He managed to get turned over 3 times having had the ball only twice!

Makes the decision to select him over DTH absolutely terrible..

Tough one got Glasgow and a real lessons learned for Russell hopefully - last week's yellow cost them greatly, and if he'd nailed those two kickable kicks Glasgow would have won.

Suppose it shows why Scotland still need Laidlaw kicking.

Glasgow were poor though

We have come to expect a lot from Russell, forgetting sometimes how inexperienced he actually is. Hopefully it will be part of the learning curve for him, both games that is.

Sean Lamont showed his limitations again unfortunately, I would be inclined to continue the Ritchie Vernon experiment at OC rather than bring him in. I thought RV did ok, carried well and was solid in defence, he has decent hands, which is more than you can say for Sean.

Vernon had a decent game.

Glasgow definitely need a few more options in the centre, so we are not forced to be playing Sean there. He is a winger pure and simple and unfortunately probably 4th choice for Glasgow these days.

Keep going with RV, he is showing some promise. I remain to be convinced that it is international level, but worse centres than him have been capped before. Hopefully though those days are gone.

Like it or not but Strauss' poor form has probably been the difference between a narrow loss and a narrow win, here and in Toulouse too.

His decision to go for goal at the end was the icing on the cake.
I can't imagine any team with high ambitions in this comp going for the posts in that situation.

Agreed on Strauss - he hasn't been as strong this year I don't think, especially in the big games. Still a huge presence, but Glasgow need more from him.

A point worth noting in the whole 'should Strauss earn his first cap during the world cup' debate

RDW_Scotland wrote:Agreed on Strauss - he hasn't been as strong this year I don't think, especially in the big games. Still a huge presence, but Glasgow need more from him.

A point worth noting in the whole 'should Strauss earn his first cap during the world cup' debate

Tend to agree with that, though to say poor form is stretching it more than a little bit. Not quite as good as last year maybe, poor I would say not.

He will still be in the mix come world cup time though, we just need not to overplay him between now and then. Having Wilson and Ashe back fit would help that.

I never used the word 'poor'

RDW_Scotland wrote:I never used the word 'poor'

No, it was mentioned by Vince earlier in the thread. No accusations intended.

I did use the term 'poor', this is a tad harsh i agree, 'below par' is probably better to describe his performances as of late. I wonder if it could be a conditioning problem or if he is still bothered with heavy pitches?

All in all extremely disappointed with the result as i feel Glasgow didn't learn anything from previous games similar to this where they couldn't impose their game, tight 5 probably still a bit too light.

Understand the disappointment as Glasgow could have won that, however it is clear the Warriors are on the up and 2 fairly narrow losses to a (half) decent T14 club is not too bad. I don't think it'll be too long before you're getting the results you know you can.

At the end of the day our tight five is always going to come up a little bit light against the Toulon's and Toulouse's of this world. We live in a different financial world to them and have a vastly different agenda, being one of only 2 professional rugby teams in Scotland.

That does not mean we can't beat them, we came very close in both games but just could not impose our own game on them. They dictated the game and they won. If we could have played our up tempo game successfully it could have rattled them, but it was not there today.

Not sure what the answer is, we tried chucking itabout willy nilly and committed suicide last year against the Blues. We tried to build the platform today and earn the right to go wide and that did not work either. We just lacked the spark of genius when we most needed it.

It is not easy to win these games. These teams do not take us lightly anymore and bring their A games along. We just got to keep learning and keep trying. We can still go through and to some extent the pressure is now off us, it did not seem to be comfortable topping that group. Bath looked nothing special on Friday night and we have beaten them well once already.

Maybe as well it is to much of a jump and we have to get the confidence of winning our league first before we have the confidence to go on and do well in this tournament. Either way, they have just got to keep believing that it will come eventually.

I know someone who would make a big difference to that pack -

Richie Gray


Got the skills to play the Glasgow way but the bulk to help against teams like Toulouse. Swinson is a work horse but is just too small.

Castres aren't doing well this year...

I was thinking about Richie too, maybe not as strong as his younger brother but he would certainly have added something to the pack today. Another one who could have been handy this season is Nathan Hines..

Also think Glasgow should do their best to get Barclay back, he is in great shape and seems to have improved his physicality at the Scarlets, in a game like today he could have made a a big difference.

I already asked that question in the other thread, would Ritchie come back if Castres get relegated?

Firstly, even though they are bottom, I think that remains unlikely. They have just to good a squad not to rally at some stage but stranger things have happened and they do seem a bit of a shambles at the moment. Lets see how they go today against Wasps, neither RG nor JB are playing so it looks as if they are trying to save their players already.

Would he come back though. I would imagine he has a release clause in his contract, most to players do. He has had a few big money moves now, maybe maximising income is not going to be his top priority for a while and he is one player that the SRU and Glasgow should push out the cheque book for. He may fancy being part of something special at Glasgow and playing regularly with his brother.

I am not sure we will see Barclay back though. His relationship with Toonie seemed pretty fractured when he left and from a Scotland point of view it is good anyway to have some of our top players playing elsewhere, to give others the chance to come through. OS does seem to be an area of some weakness for Glasgow though and potentially the weak link in the squad. We have got 2 youngsters, Spinks and Bordelli, who you would imagine now are going to get some game time and we will see if they look like they have the potential to step up.

If that does not happen, them you might think we would be in the market for one. It would seem bonkers if Blake, about to trail at Edinburgh turns out to be a decent option, then they take Hardie as well. Even more so when they have Grant and Watson, who also looks a decent propect. You are just going to get a long queue of OS's not getting any game time. Surely if John Hardie wants to come to Scotland, then Glasgow would make more sense as a destination.

Glasgow have no doubt got the best squad that they have ever had at the moment, but what is clear after the past few weeks is that it is still going to struggle against the biggest and best sides in Europe and that is with very few injuries at the moment. We still look short of an OS, another FH and another decent centre, Downey looked a decent enough signing at the time, but does not really seem to have done anything since he has been here. If he had shown anything like his form of old, then surely he would have played on Saturday.

I'm starting to believe, that after 2 and a half seasons as head coach Toonie may be starting to pick his favourites as opposed to the best and that may be hindering Glasgow going to the next step.

There is no way MacArthur should have started yesterday, let alone last until the 70 min, Dougie Hall and Fraser Brown are both better options.
Don't know why Grant got picked either apart from blind hope he will miraculously regain his best form from 2 seasons ago, Gordon Reid probably a better pick and Yanuyanutawa in with a chance for the bench spot as well.
Nakarawa being dropped as well as Lamont and Horne both preferred over DTH are 2 baffling decisions too.

Frustrating to see a team not playing to its potential and i'm not sure this is down to the players more than the coaching.

Glasgow have been knocking on the door for the last 4 seasons now and i'm tired to hear they are young and will learn from this, so far they haven't learn much.

So looks like Glasgow now need to win their last two games - preferably with at least one bonus point - to stand a chance of progressing.

Currently their are joint 4th out of the 2nd place teams, so given 3 of the 2nd place teams go through they are out the running just now.

Can see Glasgow beating Montpellier at home - who have no interest in the tournament any more - maybe with a bonus point too, but the Bath team they are going to face at the Rec will be a completely different proposition to the win the faced at the start of the season, and will be a real challenge to get a win.

Saying that, Bath will have likely just lost to Toulouse meaning they don't stand a chance of qualifying, so they might put out a 2nd string team...

Either way, Glasgow need a big win over Montpellier!

That missed conversion last week really could haunt Glasgow...as well as Russell's two missed kicks at the weekend obviously!