Hunted Glasgow Warriors become the hunter - and why it might just suit them

Leinster deposed Glasgow Warriors as kings of the United Rugby Championship and if Franco Smith’s side are to regain their crown, they are going to have to find a way of overcoming the Irish side who held all the aces last season.

They beat Glasgow three times in the space of two months to eliminate the Warriors from both the URC and the Investec Champions Cup and end their own four-year trophy drought.

Leinster lifted the URC trophy by beating the Warriors in the semis and then the Bulls in the final, becoming the fourth different side to get their hands on the silverware after the Stormers, Munster and Glasgow.

Glasgow Warriors' new defence coach Scott Forrest, centre. | SNS Group

The Warriors players and management spoke regularly last season about being targeted as champions. It was something they struggled with at times but they are now looking forward to going from hunted to hunters.

Fresh faces in the coaching team

Scott Forrest, the club’s new assistant coach, believes the change of emphasis might suit them, their status as top dogs having added a layer of pressure

“Yeah, we’ve probably not spoken about it as being a relief but it does change the mindset, I think,” said Forrest.

“Last year you were the hunted because you were the champions, and I suppose every team that comes to play you has an extra bit of motivation because they want to beat the champions. So, I suppose it's flipped back to where Glasgow would normally be. We’re the hunters again, which is quite a nice place to be.”

Forrest was promoted from Glasgow’s academy set-up and will now be in charge of the team’s defence, taking over from Pete Murchie who left at the end of the season and is expected to take up a coaching position in Japan. Forrest was appointed along with Roddy Grant, the former Edinburgh player and Ulster coach, whose focus will be on the forwards. The two new men will work in tandem with Nigel Carolan, Glasgow’s highly regarded attack coach, under Smith.

Forrest believes Glasgow are in a good place and doesn’t envisage making too many changes to the systems put in place by the respected Murchie.

Leinster beat Glasgow Warriors three times in Dublin last season, eliminating them from both the Champions Cup and the URC. | Getty Images

“I was quite lucky last year that I was in the building, so I worked alongside Pete quite a lot,” he said. “So that's one of the big things, one of the big messages we gave to the players was what's in place works. The evidence shows it, in terms of if you look at stats and the main markers around defence, it's the second best in the league behind Leinster on near enough every metric.

‘We need to be better’

“And you look across the last two years, it's been either first or second best in defence. So there's not going to be a huge change around the system. Obviously, I'll put my own slant on it but Murchie did a brilliant job when he was in here, so it's now my job to try and take it forward, because ultimately that's what we're always looking to do. How do you evolve? How do you keep pushing forward within the game?”

Forrest’s CV includes a stint as head coach of the Great Britain’s women’s sevens squad at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and he also held the same position for the Scotland women’s sevens team. He worked with Kenny Murray’s Scotland Under-20 team in the summer at the men’s World Rugby U20 Championship and is now relishing the opportunity to work with the Warriors squad.

“In terms of the mentality within the building, I've spoken about defence and how successful it is and it's the same in attack,” he said. “I think everyone can see how successful the team is under Nigel in attack. So a lot of the big rocks won't change. But ultimately we know we need to be better because we didn't win last year. So the mentality in the building is we want to go and win in the league and we want to go and win in cup competitions.”

Forrest has been crunching the numbers in a bid to find ways of improving Glasgow and trying to catch up with Leinster in terms of key defence metrics.

Glasgow Warriors head coach Franco Smith was emotional after the URC semi-final defeat by Leinster. | SNS Group

“I know every defence coach is different,” he said. “Tackle completions is important, but in isolation it's not the most important, like number of dominant tackles, number of turnovers that you win. The big ones for me looking at defence is you want to stop the other team scoring but ultimately defending is about getting the ball back.

“So the more dominant you can be in your collisions, the more turnovers you can win, the more penalties you can win on that side of the ball. They're probably some key metrics but I think where the system, if you talk about a defensive system, where it's been really good is, I think in the last two years it's had the highest tackle completion. And if you don't get that bit right, it's really hard to do all the other bits.

“We want to keep the system the same, but I think one of the changes is we want to find ways to evolve and move forward and can we be more aggressive to go and get the ball back within the system that's already in place.”

The big plus for Warriors supporters is that Smith remains in charge after a season in which he was linked with a number of high profile positions, including the vacancies at Leicester Tigers and Wales. Smith seemed uncertain about his future in the immediate aftermath of the URC semi-final defeat by Leinster in June, giving an emotional interview in Dublin. He has a year remaining on his contract and Forrest believes he will be sticking around for the immediate future, at least.

“He’s here. He’s here for the season, that was always the plan,” said Forrest. “But in terms of after that, that's very much a question for Franco. I have not asked him that.

“He's a very emotional man. I think that's probably his biggest strength as well, so he doesn't hide things. What you see is what you get, and that's very much, whether it's in front of the camera, or with us here behind closed doors, it's definitely the biggest strength he's got. He does care a lot.”