The new United Rugby Championship season is still just a few weeks old, but already it looks as if it will be one of the closest yet, with all teams bar one (Sharks) winning at least one match so far and there only being a gap of four points separating leaders Leinster and eighth-placed Benetton.
Whilst the Irish province would have been expected to make a strong start, given their overall squad depth, it would not have been as expected that their closest challengers would be Glasgow Warriors, and yet the Scottish side have picked up four wins from their opening five matches and are only below Leinster on points difference.
It has not been a quick improvement for Franco Smith’s side following their gradual fall down the league in recent years, but this season it does seem like everything has come together for them once again and that they have regained their faith and confidence on the field. This tactical analysis will take a brief look at their tactics at the start of this campaign to see how they have managed to get back into such a strong position.
One of the key things about Glasgow is their ability to retain the same core group of players in matches but to always find ways to alter their style of play to suit what they are coming up against, with them often switching between attack and defence and playing with quality both with and without the ball.
Someone who really epitomises that ability to fluctuate between the two and to offer different things on the pitch is Sebastián Cancelliere, with the Argentine winger an experienced player and someone who knows what is expected at the club. Here, it is his defensive play that is on show, with him having already hauled Leinster utility back Jimmy O’Brien to the ground here and now getting over the top of replacement flanker Will Connors to secure a turnover, winning back possession for his side in an area from which Leinster could very easily have broken through the Warriors and scored.
It might seem like a really obvious point to make, given that this defensive work is expected of wingers and so Cancelliere is not doing anything outside of the demands of his role, but it is his ability to offer this and to then run forward either down the wing or in an inside channel that really highlights how Glasgow have players who can offer multiple tactical possibilities, and he is not the only one who has this ability to switch between systems and mentalities at will.
That theme of being flexible is not only clear to see tactically but positionally too, with Glasgow having players who can operate in different areas of the pitch and who therefore allow for a significant amount of rotation during and between games.
Scrum-half George Horne is a good example of this, with him controlling play from the centre of the field but also acting as an additional winger when needed, but someone who really stands out in this regard is Scotland star Sione Tuipulotu, with him capable of playing at inside or outside centre and having the right qualities needed to thrive in both. For Scotland, he tends to only play at 12 and to partner Huw Jones in the midfield, but Glasgow tend to use him in both as they change between him, Jones and Stafford McDowall in their centre partnerships.
This situation shows his ability to switch between the two positions at ease, with him playing at 13 against Stormers but often acting as the first receiver, just as the role of a 12 would be. In this case, he ends up receiving the ball from fly-half Tom Jordan before running through the Cape Town-based side’s defensive line with ease, breaching their rearguard and scoring a try.
It was not a complex score by any stretch, but what it showed was how Tuipulotu can offer the physique of a 12 and the guile and agility of a 13, and it is that ability to move players around the field whilst not disrupting the team’s overall rhythm that has again been at the heart of Glasgow’s strong start to the campaign.
It is not just in open play that the Warriors have offered a threat though, with set pieces being just as big a weapon for them, and it is experienced hooker Johnny Matthews who has been the key player in these areas of their performances. Here, he has delivered another accurate lineout throw and has instantly joined the back of the maul that has formed in front of him, aiming to help his teammates drive up the pitch towards the Stormers line.
However, at this stage, their progress has been halted due to the South African side putting up a staunch resistance, and this might be the moment when a lot of players look to pass out and to find another way to break through their opponents. Not Matthews though, with him showing plenty of determination and willpower and simply using his strength to break through the middle of the maul, getting Glasgow going once again and ending up with a try to show for his efforts.
Matthews has always been a dominant ball-carrier and someone who does not give up when there is a chance to keep going, and he has arguably been playing his best rugby at the start of this season, with him at the heart of so much of the Warriors’ positive play and currently the league’s top scorer with five tries to his name. Therefore, he has to be included in the equation when looking at why the Warriors have been so tough to beat so far.
There has already been some analysis of Glasgow’s defensive work in this scout report when looking at what Cancelliere offers when they are on the back foot, but there are other details of their defensive play that need mentioning. One of those is how players team up with each other around the field to give themselves the best possible chance of winning each collision, keeping their opponents as far away from their try line as possible.
It doesn’t matter who it is that is working together, with Benetton’s Italy hooker Gianmarco Lucchesi being met by lock Sintu Manjezi and Scotland flanker Matt Fagerson here, with it clear to see whenever Glasgow are defending in situations like this that the whole squad has bought into this tactic of defending in pairs as they strive to make themselves as immoveable as possible.
As with any team, they are not perfect and there are moments when they do leave themselves too open, but there are definite signs that they have worked hard on their defending and it is undoubtedly paying off, with them currently having the joint-lowest number of tries conceded this season (eight, the same as Munster).
There is still a long way to go before the campaign comes to an end, and so plenty of time for things to go wrong, and the thing about the URC, particularly this season, is that any run of poor form could be disastrous to a team’s aspirations for the campaign.
However, it seems unlikely at this moment in time that Glasgow will enter one of those, with the confidence that is running through the squad at this early stage so clear to see, and they will undoubtedly be a team to keep an eye on as the season progresses.