Heineken, Pool 4, Round 3: Glasgow Warriors v Castres Olympique

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Friday 7th December 2012, KO 19:35
Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant Referee Martin Fox (England)
Assistant Referee Paul Dix (England)
Fourth Official Andy Ireland (Scotland)
Assessor Les Peard (Wales)
Citing Commissioner Shaun Gallagher (Ireland)

Teams:
Glasgow
15. Peter Murchie

14. Tommy Seymour
13. Stuart Hogg
12. Peter Horne

11. DTH van der Merwe

10. Scott Wight

9. Henry Pyrgos

8. Josh Strauss
7. John Barclay
6. Rob Harley

5. Al Kellock (capt)
4. Tim Swinson
3. Mike Cusack
2. Dougie Hall
1. Ryan Grant

SUBS

16. Pat Macarthur
17. Moray Low

18. Gordon Reid

19. Tom Ryder

20. Ryan WIlson
21. Niko Matawalu
22. Duncan Weir
23. Sean Maitland

Castres
15 Romain Martial
14 Marcel Garvey
13 Seremaia Bai
12 Rémi Lamerat
11 Maxwell Evans ()
10 Pierre Bernard
9 Rory Kockott

1 Yannick Forestier
2 Mathieu Bonello
3 Karena Wihongi
4 Matthias Rolland
5 Christophe Samson
6 Ibrahim Diarra
7 Jannie Bornman
8 Antonie Claassen

16 Marc-Antoine Rallier
17 Mihaïta Lazar
18 Anton Peikrishvili
19 Pedrie Wannenburg
20 Yannick Caballero
21 Thomas Sanchou
22 Paul Bonnefond
23 Daniel Kirkpatrick

HC Form:
Glasgow
19/10/12 Glasgow 8 - 19 Ulster
14/10/12 Saints 24 - 15 Glasgow
21/1/12 Bath 23 - 18 Glasgow

Castres
19/10/12 Castres 21 - 16 Saints
12/10/12 Ulster 41 - 17 Castres
21/1/12 Castres 13 - 16 Scarlets

Waffle:

Glasgow only have a 25 percent success rate against French opponents, winning six, drawing two and losing 16 of their games against French clubs in the Heineken Cup.

Castres have not done much better but their last outing saw them record a 21-16 victory over Northampton Saints to end their four-match losing streak in the tournament. Castres are currently 4th in the Top 14 tucked just behind Clermont. They're coming into the match on reasonable form, having beaten Mont-de-Marsan and Bordeaux away from home and edging Perpignan at home in a match that was a 74 point belter - the winning streak is 5 or 6 matches for them now.

• Against French opposition, Glasgow have a 25% win rate. They have won six, lost 16 and drawn twice against French sides in the Heineken Cup.
• Glasgow have failed to win any of their last five Heineken Cup matches, losing four and drawing one.
• Glasgow have a goal kicking success rate of 43%, lower than any other team in the tournament this season.
• Castres have suffered defeat in nine of their last 11 Heineken Cup matches, but ended a four-match losing streak with a win over Northampton in round two of the pool stages.

And it's game over Glasgow lose 6-9

What the hell? P iss is hardly a swear word

utter, feckin garbage

Glasgow, whats happening?

Well, that was fun.

They wouldn't have lost in fortress Firhill.

VinceWLB wrote:They wouldn't have lost in fortress Firhill.

Wouldn't have lost if we had re-signed Dan Parks in the Summer!

Last night was very poor, only positives were the set piece where I am clutching at straws as even there we probably only had parity.

Another game where we can't break the gainline, where the opponents can make 4 or 5 meters regularly.

Get Hogg away from 13 and back to FB. Get Troy Nathan in at centre if Dunbar is still out. Fusaro and Matawalu must start. Lets try to get the bloody ball to DTH/Seymour/Maitland - whoever is on the wing FFS !

Just saw the attendance: 3348

What's happening guys? this is not acceptable for a HCup fixture.
Connacht on the same evenning had 6583.

On top of that you have players of the calibre of Maitland, Strauss, VdM, Cusack...

This is very disapointing, the national team can fill Murrayfield's 67K with higher priced tickets...

Vince, it was bloody freezing, and our hopes of progressing hung by a thread before the match.

I'm not joking - it was a proper six layers evening.

How did Maitland play?

Good lord. What's going on? We used to win these freezing wet dogfights.

Were we unlucky or just clueless? I know that Wighty missed some kicks.

No way to tell, to be honest - he only touched the ball once, as far as I could see, and that was a wayward pass to his boots...

WTF?!?! What is Toonie doing? Simply insipid and uninspired

Toonie will find that this is the dual edged sword to coaching a great team.

If you can't score tries with a back 3 of DTH, Maitland and Hogg, then questions really need to be asked about the gameplan. Can't blame the weather - it's been urine poor for other HC ties and still teams have managed some good scores.

Not sure if DTH or Seymour touched the ball either tbh. Midfield woeful. Atmosphere desperate pre ko. New MC was a total dud. Players responded with a disgraceful display - forwards excused as usual as they did their bit. The look on Josh Strauss's face when he was brought off after 46 mins, uninjured, said it all. Would not be surprised if Strauss and Maitland get to the airport and back to SA/ NZ.

Scottish rugby is in a real crisis. Townsend and Bradley (Robinson appointments) need sacked so that we can start again.

Overall a truly depressing experience.

I just do not understand why there has been such a swing in the way we play and by recent form we don't seem to have a clue on any game plan.

I know here and other sites that Weir is taking a beating, whats happened? He is a cracking player who like many others Hogg e.g. that seem to be going backwards this season, What is Toonie doing???

Someone questioned Weirs bulk I can assure he is solid and not fat.

Why we can't get good ball that can get to DTH etc as some one said we could do it at Firhill but not here what has changed on the coaching field to make us inconsistant compared to last year.

Answers on a postcard please to Toonie, c/o Scotstoun Show Ground

Weir has not played well consistently for over a year, so can't blame Toonie solely for that one.

Crowd were as flat as I can remember for a game, but the players did nothing to the encourage them and to be honest watching Glasgow Is starting to feel like a real chore.

Sorry Dorothy but that comment regarding Weir is INCORRECT TO BE POLITE, IF THAT WAS THE CASE WHY DID HE END UP ON THE SUMMER TOUR.

It's as I said not only his form that has dipped we have brought in new guy's who are also struggling as the team is overall.

We'd just won 6 in a row only a month ago.

It's not clear to me why we should be struggling at all. Losing 0-6 to Leinster should have been enough of a kick up the @rse for these players.

123skelm wrote:Sorry Dorothy but that comment regarding Weir is INCORRECT TO BE POLITE, IF THAT WAS THE CASE WHY DID HE END UP ON THE SUMMER TOUR.

It's as I said not only his form that has dipped we have brought in new guy's who are also struggling as the team is overall.

Because there was nobody else.

Jackson got capped during the AIs despite performing at times a poorly as I have ever seen a top level pro 10 perform in the lead up games to the squads being announced.

I am not saying Weir is a bad player, just that for whatever reason, maybe it's injuries or he has not played to the level he needs to. It has to be a big concern for the club the lack of an inform 10.

Wight has done ok, but I really think he will struggle to make it as a top class Ten, hope I am wrong.

Dorothy_Mantooth wrote:Weir has not played well consistently for over a year, so can't blame Toonie solely for that one.

.

Nope =- blame Robinson picking and dropping himwithout a minutes gametime

TJ wrote:

Dorothy_Mantooth wrote:Weir has not played well consistently for over a year, so can't blame Toonie solely for that one.

.

Nope =- blame Robinson picking and dropping himwithout a minutes gametime

Because that is entirely to blame and not at all just wild speculation...

Plenty of players get called up and not played all the time, it doesnt necessarily result in a drop in form.

The problem is at least partially down to the platform Weirs getting now. For the first two seasons of his career, he got an armchair ride in league games because the Glasgow pack was arguably the most dominant in the league and best at dictating the pace of the game. When the big guns came out in Heineken games, and the pack didnt strangle their opponents as much, it was much harder for him, and it showed. Now the glasgow pack isnt the force it was 18 months ago (although the scrums still pretty good), and the onus is being placed far more on the stand off to come up with a solution.

Imperialbigdave wrote:

TJ wrote:

Dorothy_Mantooth wrote:Weir has not played well consistently for over a year, so can't blame Toonie solely for that one.

.

Nope =- blame Robinson picking and dropping himwithout a minutes gametime

Because that is entirely to blame and not at all just wild speculation...

Plenty of players get called up and not played all the time, it doesnt necessarily result in a drop in form.

The problem is at least partially down to the platform Weirs getting now. For the first two seasons of his career, he got an armchair ride in league games because the Glasgow pack was arguably the most dominant in the league and best at dictating the pace of the game. When the big guns came out in Heineken games, and the pack didnt strangle their opponents as much, it was much harder for him, and it showed. Now the glasgow pack isnt the force it was 18 months ago (although the scrums still pretty good), and the onus is being placed far more on the stand off to come up with a solution.

Some excellent points!

One thing to note is that Graeme Morrison got a lot of the blame for the lack of creativity in the backs (rightly so at times). However he has not played in weeks and the creativity has not magically increased with his absence. One thing that has been missed is his excellent defence and his leadership in what is without him and cus a pretty raw backline.

Bigdave - Fair enough but I do believe it knocked some of the confidence out of him. Put it this way - he was playing well before his call up and has been poor since.

I dont dispute that, I just think its a bit speculative blaming it entirely on the tour. Grove and Mcinally went on the same tour and never played and it hasnt done them any harm, if anything Mcinally's better for it. Groves been in wider squads all the time, yet hasnt played in 3 years.

I,m sorry for misleading this debate Weirs form has nothing to do with not being picked apart from the last game a little time, as it happens he was, if you look at the footage' ready to come on against Australia with about 20mins to go.

Big Dave you must appreciate that without quality ball very little happens! unless on the training ground you practice moves, I watched Leinster today and it was obvious of there training ground moves and Sexton was o.k. because they new what to do in certain situations but he makes mistakes like every other 10. To be fair his kicking was good from tee as usual.

So without the feed from the breakdown etc I really cannot understand why you can blame the 10 and in fact with Liensters play today Sexton was many times the second or third receiver.

Its down to training, coaching and belief on where your going and I'm not sure where we are heading at the moment.

I will be back at Lienster next year to watch us and over there it's completely different attitude where you see most of the 1st team names on the wall in the car park and they probably all have a sponsors car for e.g.

We are light years behind in creating that type of confidence for our players who go onto the field as second class citizens.

God Bless the SRU?

thats exactly the point i made about two posts up.

The problem is at least partially down to the platform Weirs getting now. For the first two seasons of his career, he got an armchair ride in league games because the Glasgow pack was arguably the most dominant in the league and best at dictating the pace of the game. When the big guns came out in Heineken games, and the pack didnt strangle their opponents as much, it was much harder for him, and it showed. Now the glasgow pack isnt the force it was 18 months ago (although the scrums still pretty good), and the onus is being placed far more on the stand off to come up with a solution.

edit: and I totally agree regarding sexton, on the few occasions ive seen him playing in a team on the back foot without getting quick ball hes been pretty ineffective too.

Glasgow have 3 fly halfs theyd be confident playing at Rabo Level in a game where the team is going forward. (im including jackson for arguments sake) What they need is at least one flyhalf who has experience of living off scraps and making the most of it. SOmeone a bit like Keatley during his connacht tenure, or dare I say it a Phil Godman of 3 or 4 years ago. Its also one of Cusiters strengths, as he spent his early career with the borders playing behind a powderpuff pack, he can take a lot of pressure off the fly half and I wager when he gets back, there will be an improvement.

Some interesting points - I'd actually be more inclined to blame a fly half for missed kicks which is actually the thing that's cost us a LBP/win in the past couple of games.

When it's very cold, wet and static, you get lots of first and second phases only which means that the 10 dictates strategy more than if there was more broken play but that said, blaming Weir seems harsh.

I think that Niko and Weir should be the way forward - we need to persist with them.

Surely the point is that we just need to better execute our existing game plan - we shouldn't have to invent something different.

Real poor result that - I fancied Glasgow to win.

Haven't seen any of the game but by the sounds of things the midfield at Glasgow isn't doing the business. You have to make some yards off first phase, even if only a couple, and it sounds like Dunbar's directness would be helpful - maybe even using Lamont at centre as well. If you can't pass your way around the opposition, you have to be prepared to bash your way through. Hopefully just a bad night.

Quick chance for the players to redeem themselves in France at the weekend.

I have been "enjoying" my season ticket this year as the ground is at the end of my road.

I've got to say though that the last two performances at home have been absolutely awful. The Leinster game was literally the worst game of rugby I have ever watched and this week was nearly as bad.

The crowds are dwindling for 2 reasons:

1/ It was REALLY chuffing cold.
2/ The performances have been completely uninspiring.

Glasgow need a huge display on the 21st otherwise I can foresee some serious crowd problems (in terms of number of people coming). Obviously the 21st will probably sell out, but they need to play attractive rugby worth watching and win to make sure people come back again.

It's weird really, with DTH, Maitland and Hogg (please play him at 15!) Glasgow should have some real pace and desire to play running rugby, and with the pack they have they should be winning clean ball. Week in, week out though the basic skills aren't good enough, the decision making isn't good enough and the fans leave the ground peed off.

9 points in the last 3 games, that's absolutely atrocious. I think I may have got to the bottom of why we've been so useless. OK so we lost the first 2 games, lets blame that on early league jitters. We then went on to win the next 6 as the players still remembered Lineen and the previous regime's coaching. Now over the last couple of weeks Toonie's gameplan has taken over and we're back with an attack that's blunter than a spoon and a defense like a sieve. It's not looking good.

I must admit Scto Abroad, the rugby Glasgow have played in the last few home games has been very ""Scotland circa 2 years ago" - that is dull and lacking any back play whatsoever.

Poor old Maitland came on and barely touched the ball! The conditions were cold on Friday but perfectly fine for running the ball.

The Glasgow defence must still be pretty good though, because at home the other teams have been brought right down to the same level of awful attack...

'I believe that this terrific group of men will respond in the right way. We are going to be much better next time we play.'

This a tweet by Mr Townsend from the Glasgow Warriors site when will he learn to just shut up and don't promise something that he seems unlikely to deliver and we are facing a good upbeat team that's just come over here and got the result

123skelm wrote:'I believe that this terrific group of men will respond in the right way. We are going to be much better next time we play.'

This a tweet by Mr Townsend from the Glasgow Warriors site when will he learn to just shut up and don't promise something that he seems unlikely to deliver and we are facing a good upbeat team that's just come over here and got the result

Toonie careful not to say that we are going to win, there. Wonder how many lawyers' drafts it took him to plop that into the blogosphere using his pointless soundbite Pez dispensor. Am fed up with management schpeak.

Compare this to the likes of Cockerill who will regularly do post-match interviews which spear the players with the likes of 'I thought they played like a right bunch of old women and I'll kick their @rses in training this week because everyone involved with the club deserves better than that pile of old scrote'.

Now THAT'S what I want Townsend to say.

Apparently Gregor isn't averse to the odd bit of hair-dryer stuff, but unfortunately you kind of need to have earned respect before using it!

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Apparently Gregor isn't averse to the odd bit of hair-dryer stuff, but unfortunately you kind of need to have earned respect before using it!

Surprised he has a hair-dryer!

Completely agree though, ultimately when the chips are down the players need to have faith in and respect the coach, as a coach. How does Gregor respond when one of the players turns round in the dressing room and says "What do you know? What have you ever achieved as a coach?".

The answer is nothing of any note at all. In fact he's largely failed at every coaching assignment he's ever been given, if results are what you hang your hat on.

It was a daft appointment. Having made it, I, like most fans, were clearly going to just live with it and see where things end up at the end of the season. Clearly the minimum is to match last season, which means finishing 2nd in the HC group, winning the 1872 Cup and reaching the play-offs. I don't want to pre-empt things, but the only one of those I can see Townsend realistically winning is the 1872 Cup, which effectively means not coming last in a Scottish rugby race to the bottom.

funnyExiledScot wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Apparently Gregor isn't averse to the odd bit of hair-dryer stuff, but unfortunately you kind of need to have earned respect before using it!

Surprised he has a hair-dryer!

Completely agree though, ultimately when the chips are down the players need to have faith in and respect the coach, as a coach. How does Gregor respond when one of the players turns round in the dressing room and says "What do you know? What have you ever achieved as a coach?".

Absolutely and in a nutshell is why the next Scotland coach has to be an accomplished winner at provincial level at least.

What's even worse is that we're now only 7 points ahead of Edinburgh, which is astounding given the season they've had. Two bad games in the 1872 and they could over take us in the league. Saying that, we're only 3 off Leinster in 3rd though so it's not all bad.

funnyExiledScot wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Apparently Gregor isn't averse to the odd bit of hair-dryer stuff, but unfortunately you kind of need to have earned respect before using it!

Surprised he has a hair-dryer!

Completely agree though, ultimately when the chips are down the players need to have faith in and respect the coach, as a coach. How does Gregor respond when one of the players turns round in the dressing room and says "What do you know? What have you ever achieved as a coach?".

He could then reply - What have you done as a player? Won an International competition? No. Got Lions caps? No. Then start playing so you can earn them!

All coaches start some where so get off his back!

cp10 wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Apparently Gregor isn't averse to the odd bit of hair-dryer stuff, but unfortunately you kind of need to have earned respect before using it!

Surprised he has a hair-dryer!

Completely agree though, ultimately when the chips are down the players need to have faith in and respect the coach, as a coach. How does Gregor respond when one of the players turns round in the dressing room and says "What do you know? What have you ever achieved as a coach?".

He could then reply - What have you done as a player? Won an International competition? No. Got Lions caps? No. Then start playing so you can earn them!

All coaches start some where so get off his back!

Oh oh

cp10 wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Apparently Gregor isn't averse to the odd bit of hair-dryer stuff, but unfortunately you kind of need to have earned respect before using it!

Surprised he has a hair-dryer!

Completely agree though, ultimately when the chips are down the players need to have faith in and respect the coach, as a coach. How does Gregor respond when one of the players turns round in the dressing room and says "What do you know? What have you ever achieved as a coach?".

He could then reply - What have you done as a player? Won an International competition? No. Got Lions caps? No. Then start playing so you can earn them!

All coaches start some where so get off his back!

Problem with Townsend is he started with Scotland - and failed abysmally !

cp10 wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Apparently Gregor isn't averse to the odd bit of hair-dryer stuff, but unfortunately you kind of need to have earned respect before using it!

Surprised he has a hair-dryer!

Completely agree though, ultimately when the chips are down the players need to have faith in and respect the coach, as a coach. How does Gregor respond when one of the players turns round in the dressing room and says "What do you know? What have you ever achieved as a coach?".

He could then reply - What have you done as a player? Won an International competition? No. Got Lions caps? No. Then start playing so you can earn them!

All coaches start some where so get off his back!

You've missed the point. Have a think and try again.

Al Kellock will miss the next game against Castres, as well as the next few games in the Rabo due to injury. However this could be a chance for Campbell to put in an appearance at some stage. Would like to see him back in the mix.

I'll put good money that we don't see him, Manky, and instead have a backrower covering for lock

Asbo, if thats the case then one of us needs to have "word" with Toony, with a backrower covering the exit.

Yes, Jedi on the bench to look horribly average as both lock and breakaway, as usual.

There will be a number of changes for Sunday as the Internationals are on a break and Strauss is off getting married.

With a 5 day turnaround I would rest as many of the starting XV he plans for the 1872.

Weir and Maitland I would play for game time.