VIDEO: Warriors pushed the 'self-destruct' button in Lions' Den
Glasgow Warriors coach Franco Smith believes his team pressed the ‘self-destruct’ button, rather than the Lions outplaying them at Ellis Park at the weekend.
The Lions put a tumultuous week of boardroom drama behind them to end a five-match United Rugby Championship losing streak.
Having come into the match on the back of a week that required a ‘behind-closed-doors’ clear-the-air meeting, the Lions recorded a 35-24 bonus-point victory at Ellis Park on Saturday.
It ended a high-flying Glasgow Warriors’ 10-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
To top it all, the Lions were reduced to 13 men for a period, after yellow cards to Edwill van der Merwe and Quan Horn.
They finished the match with 14 men, after prop Ruan Dreyer was red-carded in the 66th minute for a dangerous clear-out on the Glasgow line.
However, the Springbok, who took over as coach of the Warriors in August 2022, said his team’s high error count was at the heart of the dramatic turnaround of fortunes for the Ellis Park-based franchise.
Smith, capped nine times between 1997 and 1999, said his team had the skill and ability top cope with the warm conditions and high altitude at Johannesburg.
(Continue below interview …)
“The talk in the dressing room was that we self-destruct,” he said of the weekend’s loss.
“The Lions converted our errors [into points for them],” he said of an error count that went well into double digits.
“They [the Lions] needed a gritty performance, like they produced.
“Their coaching staff will also say it wasn’t perfect.”
He denied that his team ‘ran out of steam’ because of the heat and altitude, but put it down to the error count.
He said ‘accuracy’ will be important in the future if the Warriors want to be effective in the play-offs.
@rugby365com
