Glasgow Warriors suffer a blow from Jack Dempsey, but Franco Smith believes in the team as a whole.
Traveling to Cork to play Munster, the current URC champions, is one of the hardest away games ever, but Glasgow Warriors will be strengthened by past performance.
Last season, the Warriors made history by defeating the Irish powerhouses on their home field with a valiant performance. However, Munster eventually exacted revenge at Scotstoun during the URC quarterfinals.
Glasgow’s thrilling comeback victory over Ulster last weekend moved them atop the table, but they have suffered a serious blow ahead of tonight. Franco Smith has established a reputation for making unexpected lineup changes to keep the opposition off balance. This is evident in the fact that George Turner, Matt Fagerson, and Sebastian Canciellere all missed games against Munster. Even though Smith remained silent regarding the three powerful players, Jack Dempsey’s absence is a significant setback because the Scotland international just returned from an injury last weekend.
Smith verified, “Jack Dempsey broke a small bone above his eye. He will need surgery and be out for a little while.” On the frontal lobe, that is. Six to eight weeks will pass. Since contact injuries are being reintroduced, there will be some discussion of how the player’s confidence develops during contact. Giving a precise timeline is therefore not ideal at this time, but we’re looking at a period of roughly six to eight weeks.
“With the remaining guys, we have five crucial games coming up, so we need to make sure everyone is rested and fired up to keep improving our performance. The new players bring value, and the absent players get a chance to start over for four more crucial games.
Over the past 18 months, Glasgow has made Scotstoun a stronghold, and their home record in the URC is impressive. With their victory over Ulster last weekend, they won at home for the 19th time in the regular season, scoring 88 points out of a possible 95 and denying their opponents any try bonus points.
Smith admits that there is still space for development when it comes to playing on the road, saying, “We must learn to play with the same intent away from home.” We’ve had a lot of success away from home, and we demonstrated our good intentions last year in some excellent performances against Scarlets in the Challenge Cup semifinal and Munster in the URC.
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“We will use those as a point of reference moving forward. We are playing away from home against the reigning champions. You can tell by the kind of team they have chosen that they are willing to participate because they are not where they would like to be in the table.
This will be crucial for us to move forward in order to support the squad, the team, and our goal of being the best we can be. The fact that we get to play them there once more is incredibly motivating. In contrast to prior years when they have visited, I won’t say that we are any less scared, but there is some hope.
We need to do this in order to support the team, the squad, and our objective of being the best versions of ourselves going forward. It is immensely inspiring that we get to play them there again. I won’t say that we are any less afraid than we were the last time they came, but there is some hope.
Smith is the front-runner to succeed Gregor Townsend as Scotland manager in the future due to his undeniable positive impact since taking over as Glasgow’s head coach in August 2022.
The players have heeded the South Africans’ repeated pleas for Glasgow to step up their defensive efforts in the preseason. Glasgow leads the URC in tackle success (92%), tackles made (1,000), and turnovers won (45). Smith is happy, but he is, as usual, cautious about drawing too much conclusions.