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'Still improve a lot': Franco Smith urges huge growth from URC champs
By Bryn Palmer
Glasgow head coach Franco Smith has thrown down the gauntlet to his United Rugby Championship winners by insisting they need to be 20 per cent more efficient in attack to justify his faith they can mount another title challenge.
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Nearly ten weeks after their stunning final victory over the Bulls in Pretoria, the South African is confident he has the quality and depth of resources at his disposal to ensure that momentous triumph was not a one-off.
Warriors finished last season with the URC’s best defensive record (39 tries conceded in 21 matches including the knockout phase, at just under two per game), a resilience which served them well in a stirring semi-final victory over Munster at Thomond Park and then against the Bulls in their Loftus Versfeld stronghold.
Glasgow’s exhilarating attacking style also brought them the third-highest try tally in the league, behind Bulls and Leinster. They averaged four a game (84 in 21 games) across their whole URC campaign, and scored exactly 100 tries in 26 matches overall last term.
But Smith believes there is still plenty of scope for raising the bar and becoming more ruthless in attack.
“I think our execution of our attacking plays, specifically,” he explained. “There are so many opportunities created in every game. It’s the team that can make the most of those opportunities that obviously becomes more successful and shows that growth.
“The experience that the players have had in some difficult conditions and away from home should allow them now to challenge themselves even more from an execution perspective.
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“We want to keep on creating more opportunities and be able to identify the space and play to that. We have the skill set, our team make-up is built around that, so it’s now about taking more of those opportunities.
“We won’t ever take everyone. If there are ten opportunities, if we can get to 60 per cent I’ll be really happy. But currently we’re round about three or four out of ten in execution. It still gives you three or four tries, but I feel with the challenges ahead and the way that other teams are going to approach their game against us, we will need to make even more of those opportunities created.”
While several key Warriors such as Zander Fagerson, Richie Gray and Jack Dempsey have enjoyed a summer off, the 16 players involved in Scotland’s summer tour of North and South America are still easing themselves back into the pre-season fray.
But Smith has already seen enough to suggest that after last season’s exploits, no one is resting on their laurels as the new campaign approaches.
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“I’m really confident,” he said when asked about the prospects of further success in the forthcoming season, which begins in the URC with a trip to face Ulster on September 21. “I always say good people make good players and they have handled our successful season really well up to now with their approach.
“They have got into training again after the break and the physical and mental effort they have already shown in the first part of pre-season means a lot because they have learned and they are ready to discover even more from themselves.
“We are not hunting only success. To win is important but we want to be significant. We want to be consistent and we want to be playing a brand every week that makes our supporters and sponsors proud. It will sometimes lead to victory and sometimes not, but the way we go about our business should never differ.
“We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. There’s a process and we want to build and become as good as we can get. Yes, along the way accolades may be bestowed on us, but we can still improve a lot. Even on the review of the final there were still things we can do better, so I’m looking forward to that part of our objectives.”
Glasgow will have their first pre-season hit-out against Zebre in Parma on Saturday. Smith has left around 20 internationals at home – many will return for their second friendly against Connacht at Scotstoun on September 7 – but emphasised the “enormous part” the wider Warriors squad played in last season’s success.
“The fact that we used a lot of our non-internationals in important games last season set us up to have our best team out in the last three or four games,” he pointed out. “Guys put their hands up in difficult periods and I could even add Stafford McDowall to that list. He wasn’t necessarily one of the top two centres at the beginning.
“The likes of Max Williamson, Gregor Brown, Euan Ferrie, Ben Afshar all contributed at important parts of the season, just before and just after international games, when there were injury concerns. They gave us momentum and kept the momentum going.
“As much as we’d want to avoid expectation around the team, it’s obvious there is a lot more expectation this year and therefore to maintain quality and creativity and enthusiasm and energy and make sure our effort is high, we need everybody in the squad to contribute at some period in the season.”
Three players that won’t be involved for several months yet are Scotland fullback Ollie Smith, Tonga flanker Sione Vailanu and South African lock JP du Preez, who are all still recovering from serious knee injuries.
Smith, 24, was initially given an eight-to-twelve months recovery period after his injury against Bayonne on December 15 last year, and the head coach confirmed he is likely to need a “full year” before he returns, ruling him out of Scotland’s November Tests.
“We are not going to rush him back in, so the earliest I think we will see him is around December, just before Christmas,” he said.
The same applies to Vailanu, who was injured a week after Smith against Edinburgh, and Du Preez, who missed the whole of the last campaign after sustaining his injury in pre-season training.
