IT was an important victory in terms of the current campaign but the way Glasgow Warriors’ 35-22 win over Connacht was achieved augured even better for the longer-term after stand-off Pete Horne was given the man-of-the-match award.
That the adjudication was made by his Warriors and Scotland team-mate Tim Swinson, who was working in the commentary booth, had the feel of a vote of confidence from within the squad in both the way matters had been conducted on the field and off it, when putting the decision-making in the hands of Horne and Henry Pyrgos, the most experienced of the club’s scrum-halves who was making just his fifth start of the season.
In his last few weeks with the club Scotland’s No10 Finn Russell may yet prove his value, but Dave Rennie, their head coach, expressed satisfaction with the way his half-backs had controlled the game, albeit he also noted that life had been made easier for them to do so than it had been for Russell and Ali Price the previous week in Llanelli, by the way the forwards went about their work, a sentiment echoed by Horne.
“The forwards made my life easy and Henry was outstanding at nine, which was great. I thought we got our backline moving pretty well and we were calm and in control of the game from start to finish. I was quite happy,” said the 28-year-old who has willingly switched roles in the team’s best interest throughout his eight years in Glasgow.
That may be set to change, given that Rennie has repeatedly expressed his faith in Horne and, for all that he also described Russell as “a special player” in midweek, it seems far from unreasonable to surmise that his big money move to France has solved something of a dilemma for the Kiwi coach in allowing him to replace a maverick individual with a more orthodox game manager who is focused on bringing the best out of the team.
That team ethic was exemplified in Horne’s response to whether he is excited by Rennie’s publicly-stated commitment to giving him a run of games at stand-off next season and a chance to establish himself in the position.
“I am,” he replied. “In the past I have jumped about between 10 and 12. Like always, I am just desperate to play and do whatever I can for the team. I have probably only played three games on the spin at 10 at any one time, so we will see. I have to make sure I read it and try to string some positive performances together.”
While there was considerable satisfaction at having maintained a season-long unbeaten Pro14 record at Scotstoun, Horne meanwhile hinted at an awareness that in terms of the team’s development, they are recognising that, entertaining as it is, high-risk rugby has its limitations.
“We are putting something together now, we have been focusing on the top teams, the Leinsters, Scarlets. They just look after the ball and are very difficult to break down in defence,” he said.
“In attack, they just hold on to it and they stress you, suffocate you almost. We have still got a bit to go to get up there.”
The forthcoming play-offs will provide a further opportunity to establish just how much further.
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