WHILE Edinburgh head coach Mike Blair was at pains to stress that his players will not be worrying about the significance of Saturday’s United Rugby Championship play-off match against the Stormers, Glasgow Warriors assistant coach Pete Murchie indicated yesterday that his team is adopting a very different approach ahead of taking on Leinster in Dublin on the same day.
The former full-back stressed on several occasions that the players are being encouraged to embrace the challenge of playing a winner-takes-all match against the league’s dominant team, and to recognise that the game has the potential to redefine a generally disappointing season.
“We know it’s a quarter-final, a knockout game, and we’re building that up through the week,” he said. “It’s a Saturday game so you try to build the atmosphere as the week goes on.
“We’ve had a tough run of results but let’s not forget we’re in a quarter-final,” he continued. “We’ve had our ups and downs throughout the season, but we’re here now so let’s give it absolutely everything.”
When it was explained to Murchie that Blair had adopted a rather different approach earlier in the day, he replied: “It’s down to the individual isn’t it? You can make it work either way. We need to be at our best in terms of energy levels. If we don’t get it right, there won’t be a second chance. And the players aren’t stupid – they know it’s a knockout game.”
One point which Murchie and Blair did agree on is the importance of their respective teams not being intimidated into changing their game-plan for these matches.
“You’re always looking at the opposition and little bits and pieces where you can pressurise them, both in attack and defence, but ultimately you do need to draw on your strengths,” said Murchie. “You can’t rewrite the script based on who you’re going to play. You look at them but at the same time we need to put our best game out there.
“We were really disappointed as a group by our performance against Edinburgh last weekend,” he added. “We had an honest review, and it was very clear that everyone was hurt by that result and wants to put it right. We have to remind ourselves that it’s a quarter-final and we have to see a reaction. We’ll have to be at our best and put in a good performance if we’re going to win.”
“It’s obviously a tough place to play as they’ve got a good home record, but we’ve won there before.”
