Ryan Wilson discusses 'worry' for Glasgow Warriors after Stormers defeat makes it three losses in a row
Franco Smith’s side have lost top spot in the URC standings to Stormers after their 48-12 defeat in Cape Town.
Former Glasgow Warriors and Scotland back rower Ryan Wilson says his old club’s defence has been a ‘worry’ in recent matches.
The Scotstoun side concluded their two-week tour of South Africa with a second defeat, making it back-to-back URC losses for the first time this season. The 48-12 hammering against the Stormers also saw them lose top position in the league standings to the Cape Town outfit.
Last week they were beaten 54-12 by the Lions in Johannesburg having been knocked out of the Champions Cup in their first ever home quarter-final by Toulon before setting off for the southern hemisphere. The 22-19 loss at Scotstoun, combined with their two defeats in South Africa, makes for a total of 124 points conceded in three games.
“Got away from them” - Wilson worried by leaky Glasgow defence after third defeat in a row
Wilson, who was part of the punditry team for Premier Sports at the weekend, acknowledged that injuries had devastated the Warriors’ squad. However, the amount of tries they are conceding at the moment remains a problem.
“It stems from that Adam Hastings yellow card,” said Wilson. “Then things start to get away from you and it gets to 34-12 and all the penalties start to even up a little bit.
“Players like Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu who started to really run the show, the kicks in behind, his little grubbers, he was pulling the strings this afternoon there and just had full control of the game.
“And you could see that for Glasgow, things just got away from them. It was very similar to last week.
“They’ve only scored 12 points last week with eight tries against them. Six tries against them this week, four against Toulon, suddenly leaking 18 tries for a team that we were looking at coming into this going ‘yeah, they've got a really solid defence’.
“It's a bit of a worry and you look at it, yeah they have been decimated by injuries, especially in that forward pack. We're talking about a very unfamiliar back row that you'd normally not see when they're full strength and certainly in the second rows and that probably showed a little bit at times this afternoon.”
Wilson was joined on punditry duties in the Premier Sports studio by former South Africa full-back Thinus Delport who added: “Those are clear, vital positions, especially second row, bringing that bulk, especially driving more defence at scrum time. Then you get parity where they were just walked off the ball at certain times of those scrums and that's that weight behind those props that you need.”
Glasgow Warriors and Stormers both set for Cardiff and Ulster matches in final two rounds of regular URC season
Glasgow now have two fixtures remaining in the regular URC season, starting with the visit of Cardiff Blues to Scotstoun this Friday night. The sixth placed side come into the match in opposite form to Warriors having won back-to-back matches against Welsh rivals Ospreys and Scarlets in their last two outings.
Franco Smith’s men then head across the Irish Sea to face Ulster in their final league fixture before the play-offs. Meanwhile, table topping Stormers also face Ulster away from home and then Cardiff in Wales in their remaining fixtures.
Whatever happens in Warriors’ matches, they will now need a favour from one if not both of their two remaining opponents against the league leaders. Stormers are only one point better off than Glasgow so even bonus points in the final matches could be enough for one team to secure top spot and guaranteed home matches in the play-offs all the way to the final.
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