IN THE end they finished with a whimper rather than a bang as Glasgow's Heineken Cup dream ended with defeat on Friday night. One team will make their first appearance in the cup quarter finals, but it will be Saracens rather than Sean Lineen's side.
It must have been doubly galling for the coach that his team gifted two first half tries to their visitors which left them a mountain to climb but they never really looked like scaling the heights.
As we have come to expect, Glasgow showed admira
ble spirit but it was not enough to paper over the deficiencies in the squad and, to make matters worse, the home side set some sort of record for unforced errors. In windy conditions, a number of home players looked like they had never seen a rugby ball before so bad was their handling. Time and again Glasgow attacks came to naught as passes went almost anywhere but the intended recipient.
At one point Hefin O'Hare and Colin Gregor messed up a promising counter-attack from deep. It proved to be the centre's last mistake all night, but only because Sean Lineen dragged Gregor off the pitch pronto. It seemed invidious to single out any one player for censure since no one was without guilt. The poor coach couldn't substitute every back on the field although he must have been sorely tempted.
In truth this Glasgow side has several shortcomings and they were ruthlessly exposed against a side of Saracens experience. Everything starts with the big men and Glasgow's tight five cannot match the best. They have no driving game to speak of and the scrum creaked horribly against every team they played.
The halfbacks control the modern game, which is one of the main reasons Edinburgh have done so well recently. Sam Pinder is good about the park but you could boil the kettle in the time he takes to pass the ball. No wonder Dan Parks sits in the pocket because if he stood flat he'd get man and ball every time. From one lineout the scrumhalf fired an absolute rocket to Kelly Brown, which would have been fine except that he was aiming for Parks. Come back Graeme Beveridge, all is forgiven.
Parks too picked a bad time to go off the boil. He never stops trying, and one tackle on Friday saved a sure fire try, but he has been frustratingly inconsistent in this campaign, reflecting the side as a whole.
While the youngsters have led from the front – Moray Low, Fergus Thomson and John Barclay especially – Lineen has been let down by some of his experienced signings. Lome Fa'atau was disappointing even before his injury, from the back of the stand Daryl Gibson does not appear to offer the requisite leadership, either by word or deed, and Chris O'Young was unable to steal the No.9 shirt from Pinder despite the latter's obvious shortcomings. The coach has also made mistakes, the most glaring of which was to sign another inside centre when his squad is desperately short of strike runners one shirt wider.
Graham Morrison is the only outside centre available and he has been plagued by injuries. The big man made an appearance on Friday, for Gregor, and immediately made a difference, one of the better Glasgow backs on the night, but he too has been horribly inconsistent of late.
In fairness Glasgow have been a little unlucky; with the weather, when they needed bonus points; with injuries, as Andy Henderson, Thom Evans and Al Kellock all missed matches. And with referees, as the TV replays on Friday's first try were inconclusive at best.
Still over 5,000 fans on Friday night showed that people will come out and support success and after a couple of promising seasons, Glasgow need to take the next, hugely difficult, step up the ladder.
The full article contains 650 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
