Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

The silver lining for Glasgow Warriors after URC quarter-final exit

By PA
Warriors' Kyle Steyn is dejected at full time during a BKT United Rugby Championship match between Glasgow Warriors and Munster at Scotstoun Stadium, on May 06, 2023, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)

Glasgow head coach Franco Smith will take a silver lining out of their first home defeat of the season as he promised his players would be both fresh and determined to bounce back in their maiden European final.

ADVERTISEMENT

Warriors suffered a 14-5 defeat by Munster on Saturday in the BKT United Rugby Championship quarter-finals.

Smith’s side paid the price for an inability to convert some sustained early pressure and a five-minute first-half period where Munster scored two tries either side of stand-off Tom Jordan’s red card for a dangerous tackle.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

Victory would have sent Glasgow to Dublin for a semi-final against table-toppers Leinster on Saturday but they now get extra time to prepare for the European Challenge Cup final in the Irish capital against Toulon on May 19.

Smith said: “In all honesty, to ask these boys to play in two finals, from where we are in year one, would have been a huge task. Now, in retrospect, obviously not before.

“We were all in to win this, there was no talk about taking our foot off the pedal.

“But now we are going to be smart about it. We probably won’t train until way later this week.

“We are going to use the rest days in our benefit. There will be four or five days where we reset the bodies and get their minds liberated a little bit.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I could sense in the dressing room there is so much determination to finish this season on a high.

“I am looking forward to making a proper plan for Toulon and then with freshly-recovered bodies to see if we can go and bring something back.”

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

N
NB 16 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Nice bit if revisioniusm but that's all it is JW.


For your further education, I found the following breakdown of one prominent club's finances in the Top 14 [Clermont].


For Clermont (budget of €29.5 million for 2021-2022) :

- 20% from ticket sales

- 17% from the LNR (includes TV Rights, compensation from producing french internationals and other minor stuff)

- 5% from public collectivities (so you're looking at funds from the city of Clermont, the department of Puy-De-Dôme and the region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)

- 4% from merchandising and events

- 3% from miscellaneous

- 51 % from sponsorships and partnerships. They've got 550 different partners. The main ones are CGI, Groupama, Limagrain/Jacquet, Omerin, Paprec, Renault and of course Michelin (not surprising since they're actually the founders of the club).


As you can see nothing comes from the FFR at all. The LNR is a separate entitiy to FFR and their aims frequently do not accord.


It is also why the European breakaway plotted by LNR and PR back in 2013 had nothing to do with the governing bodies of either England or France - and it most certainly did not have their blessing https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/story/_/id/15331030/jean-pierre-lux-anglo-french-cup-detrimental-european-rugby


And from the horse's mouth [ex AB skipper Sean Fitapatrick] about the comp between Top 14 and Super Rugby:


"The Top 14 in France is probably the best rugby competition in the world at the moment, purely for the week-in, week-out.”


“I think the quality of players. They are bigger, they are faster, they are stronger. Which then carries on into the international game.”

Take it from someone who knows JW😅

292 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Let's be real about these All Blacks Let's be real about these All Blacks
Search