Discipline the key for Murray

Glasgow Warriors Assistant Coach Kenny Murray says the focus will be on improving discipline ahead of next weekend’s clash with Scarlets at Scotstoun, after his side was edged out by Connacht in this evening’s 2020/21 Guinness PRO14 opener.

A closely-fought affair at The Sportsground ultimately went the way of the home side, and whilst Murray and the coaching team identified positives to take out of the match the defeat is a disappointing one to take.

“We’re obviously frustrated that we lost, especially after going in ahead at half-time,” Murray told glasgowwarriors.org.

“We’d been under pressure in the first 20 minutes, so we were pleased to get on top and go in with Nick [Grigg]’s try at the break.

“We’ve got to be a lot more disciplined – we gave away far too many penalties in the game, and we need to be more clinical too.

“There were definitely positives to take, though. Our attack looked sharp at points and we defended well for long periods of the game, we just know we need to take a few more of our opportunities going forward.”

A focal point of the Glasgow attack throughout, Huw Jones was another to cross the whitewash in Galway in only his third match for the club at full-back. It was a performance that pleased both the Warrior Nation and the Glasgow coaching team, as the Scotland international grows into the position.

“We’ve got a lot of faith in Huw at full-back,” said Murray.

“We know how good of an attacking threat he is, and he’s got that ability to beat defenders in the wide channels. He’s going to be a real asset for us this season.

“There are obviously parts of his game he needs to develop, but he’s working hard on them in training and he’s looking good in attack.”

The match also marked a milestone for two of the matchday 23, as both Oli Kebble and George Turner made their 50^th appearance in Glasgow colours.

“Oli is really enjoying his rugby at the minute, particularly in defence,” said Murray.

“We tweaked a couple of things in our system and he’s been enjoying getting stuck into collisions and being physical around the park.

“George didn’t get a lot of game time tonight, but he’s another guy that brings a lot of physicality to everything we do. They deserve to reach that milestone, and hopefully they’ll be around for another 50 appearances for us.”

The Warriors now have eight days to prepare for their opening home clash of the new campaign, as Scarlets make the trip to Scotstoun next Sunday night. Whilst the Welsh side are another side coming off a narrow defeat in round one, Murray is under no illusion as to the test posed by the men in red and the areas in which Glasgow will look to improve ahead of next week.

“Discipline is the big one,” he said.

“We need to be tougher to beat, and that means not giving away soft tries. Those are the big areas for training this week.

“Scarlets obviously had a tough loss today, but at the end of the day they’ve got a squad littered with Welsh internationals. We know how tough they’ll be, and we’ll need to be on top form to get the right result next week.”