We know we’ll have to be better – Rennie
Glasgow Warriors Head Coach Dave Rennie pulled no punches in his assessment of his side’s performance in their opening Guinness PRO14 match of the 2019/20 season, which saw them go down to a 48-14 defeat at the hands of the Toyota Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.
The home
side ran in seven tries to claim a bonus-point victory on the high veldt, with
Glasgow unable to live with the pace and fluidity of their hosts.
“We didn’t
do the basics well enough,” said Rennie.
“Our set piece
didn’t function at the level we’d want it to, we kept dropping the ball and if you
do that at this level that you’re going to struggle. They’re a well-oiled team
that have been playing well together for a few months, and we were miles away
from where we know we need to be.
“We know we’ll
have to be better and we’ll be looking for redemption in seven days’ time.”
The squad
were dealt a difficult hand with injuries over the course of the match, but
Rennie refused to use the blows as an excuse for the defeat.
“We’d
trained well and prepared well, so we expected better tonight,” said the Warriors
boss.
“We weren’t
good enough and if you’re a couple of cogs off you can get spanked in this
competition.
“Nick Grigg
was a knee, there were a few concussions, and Kyle Steyn got a knock to the
shoulder. We had to go to the bench quite early, but we’re not looking for
excuses.”
The Warriors
will have a week to analyse and amend their performance ahead of their home
opener next Friday, with the Scarlets the visitors to Scotstoun a week tonight.
“It’s a
pretty challenging start for us,” admitted Rennie.
“We’ll get
home on Sunday night, and we’ll start running things ahead of Scarlets on
Monday. We’ll regroup and go out and look to be better next week.”