Champions Cup: Glasgow v Leicester: Stafford McDowall eyes historic success
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GLASGOW WARRIORS will break new ground on Saturday evening when they play their first ever home Champions Cup knock-out match, and they know that a win in that match against Leicester Tigers would represent another step beyond anything the club has achieved before.
Whilst competing and winning in end of season do-or-die matches in the URC/PRO14/PRO12 has become part of the yearly routine for the Scotstoun outfit, their elevation to truly elite status in northern hemisphere club rugby will not be confirmed until they are breaking opposition hearts with the same sort of regularity in the knock-out phases of the flagship EPCR competition.
As it stands, Warriors lost away to Harlequins in the Round of 16 of last year’s Champions Cup, and previously lost away to Saracens at the quarter-final stage (before the Round of 16 was introduced) in 2017 and 2019. While there have been some excellent one-off performances and results in this competition over the years, Glasgow have not yet proven that they have what it takes to succeed against the best England and France as well as the URC has to offer when the heat is really turned up.
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Franco Smith‘s side have a chance to start rewriting their European history when they host another English heavyweight in the shape of Leicester Tigers at Scotstoun on Saturday night, and centre Stafford McDowall agrees that it is high time that Warriors prove that they can replicate the form which carried them to URC glory in Durban at the end of last season in this competition.
“I think we showed last year when we got to big games and the way the boys carried themselves to that quarter, semi and final [of the URC] that when we play the right style of game in these big knock0out games, we can definitely get it right,” he said.
“We’ve proven that now. Maybe a couple of years ago we’d be sitting here saying of this group ‘we believe we can do it’, but the boys have proven that it can be done, going to tough places like Munster and Bulls away and getting big wins. We’ve got a little bit more confidence in ourselves and our game-plan, but we know it’s not going to be easy.
“We’ve seen what this Leicester team can do and they’ve obviously got that European pedigree from the past that they’ll back themselves to come up here. We know we need to be our best.”
Leicester are currently third in the Gallagher Premiership table. They lost 22-29 at home to Saracens last Sunday, but hammered last season’s English champions Northampton Saints 0-33 away the weekend before that. South African double-World Cup winning stand-off Handré Pollard, Argentina captain and hooker Julián Montoya, England second-row Ollie Chessum (although there has not been an update since he was a late call-off for the Saracens match) and Welsh tearaway flanker Tommy Refell are among the big names likely to be in the Tigers squad this weekend.
Meanwhile, Scotland second-row Cameron Henderson – formerly of the Glasgow Warriors Academy – will be a familiar face to the Scotstoun faithful, and Scotland back-up tight-head prop Will Hurd will hope for his first run-out for the club since prior to the Six Nations.
“We love these games when you get to play teams you don’t get to play very often,” added McDowall. “It’s the same when you get to play the French teams. It poses a different challenge. They probably bring a different mindset to what a lot of the teams in our league do. But yeah, we know that they’re going to be a physical team.
“They’ve had a couple of good results. Obviously a big win away to Northampton a couple of weeks ago, and now they’re coming off the back of a defeat, so they’ll be up for it.
“I guess with the coach as well, we all know, everyone knows a bit about Michael Cheika [the well-travelled former head coach of Leinster, Argentina and Australia] and what he brings, it’ll be a physical outfit.
“I think they definitely bring a more direct game. A lot of physicality, a big forward pack. When you look at their backline, they’ve got star names loaded right through the backline.
“I guess that’s what you get with some of these big Premiership clubs is those names on the team-sheet, like Pollard and guys like that, [who] you’ve probably not had a chance to play against before at club rugby level. It’s a Champions Cup knockout game, it’s do or die.
“It’s not one for getting too over-emotional for during the week. Hopefully we’ll bubble up nicely come Saturday night and we’ll be ready to go and hopefully put on one of our best performances of the season.
“We’ll make history this week, it’s out first knockout game at home, but we don’t want it to stop there. We want to keep going. Not that we’re overconfident, I don’t think we deserve it … because we’ve won the URC, we automatically get to go far in Europe. We know it’s a tough competition and we know how hard it is to win.
“That’s why no Glasgow team has been further than this stage yet. It’s not getting too far ahead of ourselves, but it’s knowing that we need to have the belief in ourselves that we can go and do this.
“There is always a bit more of an extra buzz [on weeks like this]. These big games, we know the place is going to be bouncing, it’s going to be sold out. If a Premiership team comes up here, they’re going to be full of confidence that they can come roll us. It does bring a bit of extra edge out in training.
“We’ve talked about it this week, we know training is not going to be perfect and we can’t expect that, but just trying to be excellent through the week so that when it comes to Saturday we’re full of confidence. It definitely does change it a bit, you have a bit more energy, a bit more bounce. Everyone’s just excited for a big occasion.”
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