Glasgow head coach Franco Smith has served notice his side are intent on building on their United Rugby Championship success and believes they can get even better as they prepare to launch the defence of their title next month.
Nearly 10 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.
While several key players such as Zander Fagerson, Richie Gray and Jack Dempsey have enjoyed a summer off, the 16 Warriors involved in Scotland’s summer tour of North and South America are still easing themselves back into the fray.
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But Smith has already seen enough to suggest that while there is a spring in the collective step after their remarkable achievement in prevailing first over Munster at Thomond Park in the semi-finals, and then the Bulls in their Loftus Versfeld stronghold, no-one is resting on their laurels as the new campaign approaches.
“I’m really confident,” he said when asked about their prospects for the forthcoming season, which begins in the URC with a trip to face Ulster on 21 September. “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. I stated when I started two years ago that 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 finished last season with the URC’s best defensive record (only 39 tries conceded in 21 matches including the knockout phase, at just under two per game), a resilience which served them well in those stirring semi-final and final triumphs.
They don’t appear to have an obvious issue in crossing the whitewash themselves either. Warriors had the third highest tally of tries in the league, behind the Bulls and Leinster, and scored exactly 100 in 26 matches overall last term, averaging exactly four a game across their URC campaign (84 in 21 matches up to and including the final).
But Smith believes his side can raise the bar by as much as 20 per cent 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.
“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 every one. If there are 10 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 10 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.”
That mission begins tomorrow with a first pre-season hit-out away to Zebre in Parma. Smith has left around 20 internationals at home – many will return for Glasgow’s second friendly against Connacht at Scotstoun on 7 September – 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 international games, 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 full-back Ollie Smith, Tonga flanker Sione Vailanu and South African lock JP du Preez, who are all still recovering from serious knee injuries.
Smith was initially given an eight-to-12 months recovery period after his injury against Bayonne on 15 December last year, and the head coach confirmed he is likely to need a “full year” before he returns.
“We are not going to rush him back in, so the earliest I think we will see him is around December,” 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.
“They are all more or less in the same bracket, to see if we can have them back around just before Christmas,” added Smith, who - those three long-term absentees aside – hopes to have everyone else available for the URC opener in Belfast, barring any mishaps over the next three weeks.
“We must bear in mind though there are still a couple of warm-up games and training will get harder now,” he added.
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