Dave Rennie praises character after tense La Rochelle win

Dave Rennie praises character after tense La Rochelle win

Glasgow Warriors secured four points on the road this afternoon thanks to a 27-24 win over La Rochelle in France.

Dave Rennie was happy with the way his team ground out the win with a big second-half performance.

“We showed a lot of character to come back into this game.

“I felt in the first half we needed to earn the right to go wide and we were in too much of a hurry to spread the ball.

“What we found in the second half when we were more direct and went multiphase, we put them under a lot more pressure which is something to think about for next week,” said Rennie.

The Warriors were 10 points adrift when just on halftime captain Callum Gibbins touched the ball down over the whitewash from the back of a maul.

“We were down 13 – 3 and hadn’t been playing well so that try before half time was massive for us,” said Rennie.

“The big men did a good job there. It came off the back of us just being direct and asking a few questions.”

After going down 21 – 13 early in the second half, the Warriors scored two tries in 15 minutes through Niko Matawalu and Kyle Steyn to regain the lead

The head coach said: “Niko’s try was opportunist with the intercept. It’s something he does at training all the time so no surprises seeing that.

“We did think there was a bit of space off the counter-attack kicking across to the other side to a winger and I thought Kyle’s finish was excellent.

On the nail-biting finish, Rennie said: “We lacked a little bit of discipline late in the game. We had the dominant scrums until their loosehead was allowed to stand up and walk about and all of a sudden, we’re getting penalised.

“Regardless of that, a massive amount of character from the boys. It was an arm wrestle and we’re happy to get the result.

“It’s important to get four points away from home and next week is massive again.”

Tickets for Glasgow Warriors v La Rochelle at Scotstoun next Saturday are available HERE

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