'We can still improve': Franco Smith's warning to Nienaber's Leinster
REACTION: Franco Smith praised his Glasgow players as they overwhelmed Leicester Tigers to book a Champions Cup quarterfinal tie away to Leinster.
The Warriors ran in six tries to win their first-ever knockout tie in this competition, with Smith believing the margin of victory ought to have been greater.
Henco Venter and Sione Vailanu scored twice apiece, with additional scores from Adam Hastings and George Horne.
Smith said: “I’m obviously delighted with the result and some good rugby played but we did leave some points out there.
“I think we weren’t as clinical as we may have been in the first half against the Lions a couple of weeks ago. So that is what excites me. I think we can still improve on our current performance.
“I think we came out and applied some good pressure from the restart. Our set-piece functioned. But we made full use of some of the opportunities, which obviously extended the points difference on the scoreboard and created a bit of pressure on them.
“A lot of the hard work was done in the first half, where we kept on staying in the 22 and just breaking it down.”
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Smith revealed hooker Johnny Matthews failed his head injury assessment because he prefers not to wear a mouthguard with the in-built technology.
He added: “It is difficult because of the gum shields that they wear. He does not wear one. Therefore, he does not qualify for the HIA process. The thing makes him feel ill.
“It’s that the mouthguards are a little bit thicker because it’s got a chip in it. So you’ve just got to get used to that, and he struggles. And I can understand that.”
Leicester head coach Michael Cheika felt almost shell-shocked by the margin of victory but pointed to his side conceding 15 penalties to seven. Glasgow’s first 31 points came against 14 men during sin-bin periods for Jack van Poortvliet and Cameron Henderson.
He said: “I’m still scratching my head as to how the score was what it was, to be honest. I thought we were much more in the battle from my feeling in the game.
“But when the penalty count is so lop-sided, it just surprised me. I suppose the mindset comes from the very start.
“Because the very first one, when the player went up in the line-out and they held him up in the line-out, that’s a penalty, right? But I don’t know what the mindset is, whether he reset the line-out and gave another one. I cannot understand it. And I suppose that mindset then sets in.
“And there were so many penalties in the first half, it was out of control.”
*Additional Reporting: Rugbypass
