Lessons from Munster defeat will serve us well | Cummings

• 7 May 2023

The effort expended over the course of a brutally physical BKT United Rugby Championship quarter-final tilt was writ large across the faces of each and every Glasgow Warrior coming off the Scotstoun pitch last night.

A 14-5 defeat at the hands of Munster means that the domestic campaign is now at an end for Scott Cummings and his fellow Warriors, a fact that the second-rower was finding it difficult to process in the immediate aftermath of the full-time whistle.

“It’s tough,” Cummings told glasgowwarriors.org.

“It hurts a lot – we’ve put a lot into the season, so for the league campaign to end like that is a hard one for us to take.”

Yet the result doesn’t tell the whole story of the match. Reduced to 14 men after 25 minutes, the Warriors dug deep. Whilst ultimately coming up short, the hosts did not concede a solitary point for the final 53 minutes of the match, Kyle Steyn’s hard-earned score a testament to the home side’s dedication to finding a route back into proceedings.

“We felt there were still opportunities for us despite the fact we were down to 14 men,” said Cummings.

“We just knew we couldn’t give up, and that we were going to fight until the very last minute of the match.

“We left everything out there and I’m proud of the shift that the boys put in, but it’s a tough one to take right now in the immediate aftermath of that match.”

The result means that just one match remains in the 2022/23 season for Glasgow Warriors, a fixture whose significance needs no further underlining.

A showdown with Toulon awaits in a fortnight, as the two teams go head-to-head in the EPCR Challenge Cup Final at the Aviva Stadium.

For Cummings, the next steps are clear, as all roads lead to Dublin for both the squad and the Warrior Nation set to follow their team.

“The supporters were brilliant,” said Cummings of the support at Scotstoun.

“Emotions were high and having the backing of everyone that turned out really gave us a lift, and we can’t thank them enough for their support of this club.

“There’s a lot we can learn from tonight as a group, too. We’ll take everything we can out of that game and work on it over the next couple of weeks, because we know that there are still plenty of areas in which we can improve.

“We’re still building as a squad and still learning together, and we know exactly how much that game in Dublin in a fortnight means to us and to everyone associated with the club.

“We’ll rest the bodies and come back ready to get stuck into preparations for the final.”