Glasgow Warriors must match their supporters by raising themselves to a new level this weekend if they are to get through to the Pro14 final according to their British & Irish Lions winger Tommy Seymour.
The capacity at their Scotstoun home has been raised to 10,000 with the erection of temporary grandstands for Friday’s meeting with the reigning champion Scarlets and it looks set to be a sell-out.
That should maximise home advantage at a ground where they have won all 10 Pro14 matches this season, failing to pick up a bonus point just once, but Seymour reckons they will need to play better than in any of those matches if they are to get the better of a team that contested a European Champions Cup semi-final last month.
“Obviously, for us, winning the title is huge, to get a second championship with Glasgow. So, the boys are buzzing about the opportunity to do that [but] we’re going to have to play our best game of the season, really, because I’m under no illusions, none of us are, that Scarlets will be playing theirs,” he said.
“They were champions last year. They’ve got an opportunity to do something really special and win back-to-back titles, so their motivation is easy.”
Seymour, who toured New Zealand with the Lions last summer and is among those being rested when Scotland head to the Americas later this month, admitted to being an admirer of the style of play that has turned Friday’s opponents into a European force.
“They have a really expansive game. I’m a big fan, the boys are, of the way they play their rugby,” he said. “It’s similar to us in the sense that they like to throw the ball around. They’ve got really good distributors in the forwards as well, so it plays well into those hands.
“We’ve got to shut down and limit the opportunities that they have to get their strike runners on the ball and I think for us it’s about being clinical when we’ve got the ball and making sure that we’ll handle the pressure that comes with the occasion and push to get across the line for a few scores as well.”
The 29-year-old is now a senior member of a Warriors team that has changed substantially since their own Pro12 title win three years ago, but he believes they are capable of overcoming both the Scarlets and the winner of Saturday’s all-Ireland clash between Munster and newly crowned European champions Leinster.
“Obviously it’s very different – there’s a lot of boys that have moved on or retired, departed the club and a few boys that have come back – DTH [van der Merwe] obviously. We’ve got a quality team, I think. We’ve done incredibly well over the season to get where we are and qualify with weeks to spare,” he said.
“It’s obviously a much younger team than the last one, but I think the willingness to win and the excitement to win the championship is as strong as it was back in 2015. I’m under no illusions that this squad is just as capable as the one three years ago of winning the championship.”
Friday will bring the return to Scotstoun of another old favourite, with curren Scotland captain John Barclay in the opposition ranks and Seymour made it clear that sentiment will not affect his international colleague’s determination to ensure that the last game he plays for the Welsh team that he has helped turned around is played in the city where he made his name.
“It’s nice to get to beat John any time we get the opportunity,” said Seymour. “I love him, but I’ve not given him much thought. We’ll worry about beating Scarlets and that will be a pleasure in itself [but] if Barcs is on the losing side, then obviously it’s a little bit of a cherry on top.”
The Warriors, meanwhile, have a potential advantage following van der Merwe’s return to their ranks this season, his three-year absence having included a spell at the Scarlets, but Seymour said they are not making too much of that.
“He is being as helpful as he thinks he can, but is as aware as everyone
else in the squad that it’s about concentrating on ourselves and making sure we do our processes right and if we do that we should come out all right,” he said.
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