Wilson left ruing fine margins

Glasgow Warriors Head Coach Danny Wilson was left ultimately ruing his side’s discipline, after exiting the Challenge Cup at the round-of-16 stage at the hands of Montpellier.

Tries either side of half-time ultimately decided the match in favour of the hosts, with the Warriors having to settle for points from the boots of Adam Hastings and Ross Thompson.

A match with a high penalty count for both sides eventually settled in the French side’s favour, yet Wilson expressed his frustration at his team once again falling foul of the officials.

“We can’t be playing big games like this and giving away the number of penalties and cards that we do,” said Wilson after the match.

“Ultimately it isn’t good enough. We’re showing plenty of fight and we got ourselves back within a score which was good, but I think we’ll look back on this game as a match we should have won.

“There were a couple of decisions that went against us – I thought there should have been a penalty try if Fraser Brown’s try wasn’t awarded, so that’s a huge moment. I have no complaints with the red card, but it’s still a very frustrating night.”

The Warriors remained in touch throughout the closing stages, with George Horne and Ross Thompson almost sparking a late comeback for the visitors that would have stolen victory at the death. Wilson and his coaching team identified the positives, but the Glasgow boss knows that the match was one that got away from his side.

“When we got speed and tempo into the game, we showed the threat we could be to our opponents,” said Wilson.

“Our kicking game overall I don’t think was good enough, though, and that put us under pressure at times.

“The game was within our grasp. Let’s remember the star-studded squad we’ve just played and that we were in touching distance of winning the game.”

With a three-week break until the opening round of the Guinness PRO14 Rainbow Cup, the Warriors will now take some time to reflect and recharge ahead of the new competition getting underway.

Whilst still smarting from the defeat at GGL Stadium, Wilson believes his squad will benefit from the break and knows his team will come back raring to hit the ground running.

“The key now is the balancing act – we’ve got a number of internationals who have had a two-month long spell in the Six Nations bubble, have come straight back in and played tonight,” explained Wilson.

“Some of those guys need a break, both mentally and physically.

“What we’ve got an opportunity to do now, though, is to build with everyone back in the building and guys like Fraser and George [Horne] back from injury. It gives us a bigger pool of players to develop with, and we’ll hopefully see some good performances in the Rainbow Cup.

“We won three out of our last four league games and there are plenty of positives to take out of tonight even with the disappointing result.”