Never in doubt for Murray

The Warrior Nation might have been putting their fingernails through the ringer in the closing stages of last night’s victory over Leinster, but there was never any doubt in Kenny Murray’s mind that the home side would close the deal under the Scotstoun floodlights.

“It was great that we put ourselves in that position,” the Assistant Coach told glasgowwarriors.org.

“We gave up a couple of soft scores in the first half through missed tackles and we allowed Leinster to gain momentum in their attack too often. They can really hurt you if you allow them to get on top of you physically.

“I thought the second half showed our physicality though, and our defence was outstanding. We took our chances really well in attack under pressure, and when we had to defend well we defended well. We had a couple of really good defensive sets in our own 22 where we forced turnovers through our own pressure of the Leinster attack.

“I thought Thomas Gordon’s hit in the second half, too – that gave us a real boost, it was a superb hit. Hats off to the boys, it was a hell of a performance.”

The 15-12 victory puts Glasgow Warriors top of the standings for at least the following week, with Benetton and Munster enjoying a bye week in the competition’s schedule.

Whilst other results must go the way of the Warriors to see them represent the north in the inaugural Guinness Rainbow Cup Final, it’s all about perspective for Murray.

“We kept one of the best sides in Europe scoreless for 40 minutes,” he said.

“We’ve defended well over the last few games – physically we’ve been excellent since the Edinburgh win at Scotstoun and we fronted up really well again tonight. We stepped it up again.

“Who knows what’ll happen now. We might have another game and we might not, but we can certainly say we’re finishing the season on a high.”

Indeed, Murray – along with many amongst the Warrior Nation – is already relishing the prospect of what this team might be capable of in 2021/22.

“A lot of people might not realise that we’ve not been able to pick from a full squad for a large part of the season,” said Murray.

“The last few weeks has seen everyone come back together, competition for places has been high and that helps to drive the standards. It’s been really good for us. It’s shown what we’re capable of doing and we need to use that as a platform for next season.

“We’ve seen the young boys coming through and they’ve made a real impact – Cole Forbes and Ross Thompson were excellent again tonight, as was Rory Darge once again. We’ve also got some real talent coming in and we’re really excited for next season.”