Gordon ready to front up to Bulls challenge

He’s one of the quiet men of the Glasgow Warriors pack, but Thomas Gordon wasn’t going to hide his annoyance at how the events of last Saturday unfolded down in Swansea.

A late salvo that saw the Warriors cross for two tries inside the final two minutes – including a second score in as many outings for Gordon – came too late to impact the result, the Ospreys earning a 32-17 victory in front of their home support.

This Saturday we welcome @BlueBullsRugby to Scotstoun Stadium for the very first time.

🎟️ ⤵️

— Glasgow Warriors (@GlasgowWarriors) October 3, 2022

“Personally, I was really frustrated with how last weekend went,” Gordon told glasgowwarriors.org.

“We just couldn’t get things right in attack. Our defence on the most part was pretty good, we just made a few mistakes and turned the ball over too often.

“It’s hugely frustrating to be honest. To have come off a result like the win over Cardiff and then to not be able to back it up, that hurts.”

It’s a sense of frustration shared by not just the 23 players involved at the Swansea.com Stadium last Saturday, but by each and every one of Gordon’s team-mates.

Indeed, this weekend’s clash with the Vodacom Bulls can’t come quickly enough for the Warriors, as they look to right a few of the wrongs under the Scotstoun floodlights.

“They’re a big group of boys, eh?” grinned the flanker.

“We know what sort of challenge they’re going to bring. They’re going to come hard at you and challenge you to stop them.

“They’ve got some fast backs, too, so we know we can’t take our eyes off them. If we give them space, they can really punish us.

“We’ve talked a lot about meeting fire with fire though, and we want to do exactly that this weekend. We know the Bulls pride themselves on being a physical team, so we know how important it will be for us to front up and meet that physicality.

“We’ve gone over our game plan in the team meetings this week and we’re all clear on the job we have to do. Now we have to go out and do it on Saturday.”

The Warrior Nation will once again have a vital role to play, as the Warriors extend their unbeaten record at Scotstoun in the BKT United Rugby Championship to eight matches.

Gordon was quick to highlight the influence of the fans upon proceedings on the pitch, as well as giving a message to the supporters set to roar on their team this weekend.

“Everyone in this team draws off the energy of the crowd,” he said.

“Having the fans cheering you on makes a massive, massive difference, and we know how important their support is.

“We want to give them something to cheer about – we know our run of form hasn’t been great, but they keep putting their faith in us. It’s time for us to repay that faith.”