“We just weren’t clinical enough” | Stafford McDowall
It wasn’t the night for Glasgow Warriors on Saturday down at the Twickenham Stoop, as Harlequins came away with the win in the final pool game of the Investec Champions Cup.
Stafford McDowall was back in action for the Glasgow side and spoke with glasgowwarirors.org following the match.
“We didn’t create enough opportunities in the first half.” McDowall said, “They obviously disrupted us well, and got in our flow and didn’t allow us to get into our structure. We still created a bit but we just weren’t clinical enough.”
The game was defensive heavy for the Glasgow Warriors for large portions of the game.
“I think we defended well in parts but they had a lot of ball and they are good attacking team and they just broke us down.
“But again, the fight in the second half, we came out and we played a lot of the game in their final quarter, btu again we just couldn’t get over the line.
“A couple sloppy errors which are fully on ourselves, that got to be better.”
The McDowall/Rowe link up at The Stoop yesterday. https://t.co/CayIYGLYsb
— Glasgow Warriors (@GlasgowWarriors) January 19, 2025
With the team now heading back in to the URC while many are away on International duty, McDowall is keen that the squad learn from this weekend.
“It is the easy thing to lean to, to say we will be fine going forward, but we have to look at ourselves and say well why didn’t we take these opportunities.
“We put a lot of pride in ourselves about how clinical we are in that red zone, and it just wasn’t there tonight. It is something we will need to go and look at and see how we can get better.”
Despite the loss, Glasgow Warriors still made club history and have secured a home game for knock out European rugby.
“It’s so massive to be at Scotstoun for the Round of 16. The club has never had a home knock out tie.
“We have out in some really good performances in the Champions Cup both home and away and we are looking forward to playing at a hopefully sold out Scotstoun with our fans behind us”
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We will take on @LeicesterTigers at Scotstoun in the @ChampionsCup Round of 1️⃣6️⃣ 👊
Full fixture details will be confirmed in due course by EPCR.#WhateverItTakes ⚔️🛡️ pic.twitter.com/FJA8WI0Edn
— Glasgow Warriors (@GlasgowWarriors) January 19, 2025