Franco Smith praised the Lions for pushing his Glasgow Warriors side on Friday night, but admitted the URC front-runners have work to do over the November break.
Glasgow beat the Lions 29-20 at Scotstoun to go top of the log before the conclusion of this weekend’s round-five action in the competition.
The hosts led 19-3 at half-time but the visitors scored three second-half tries to edge ahead 20-19, before fullback Ollie Smith crossed for a bonus-point try in the 76th minute.
George Horne’s stoppage-time penalty denied the Lions a losing bonus point.
RECAP: Spirited Lions fall short in Glasgow thriller
“I expected it to be a fight from the start,” Smith said in a post-match interview with Premier Sports. “They’ve rolled out a classy outfit, and I don’t think they were missing many players.”
The Glasgow boss felt the third week on tour, followed by a break, had stirred some pride in the Lions.
“They’ve had a disappointing and emotional trip, and I’m sure the Lions players decided to give it one more go on this trip. So I was absolutely not surprised by the effort from them.”
LAKER: Stormers fixed what was broken
Morné van den Berg, Siba Mahashe and Morné Brandon crossed for the Lions, and Smith noted this passage that let Ivan van Rooyen’s men back in.
“We gave away that sequence of penalties, went offside and then straight after the maul penalty, they kicked to the corner,” he said.
“We should have stopped it better because that led to the try in the end. That’s work for us, so that we don’t give away maul tries. The Lions did a great job there.
“Then, from the restart, it starts again: chase it down and that’s what we did. We just got the ball back and made the most of that next opportunity.”
RASSIE: I don’t think they sleep well at night
Looking ahead, Smith said most of his players now join the Scotland squad for the Nations Championship.
“The players who aren’t involved will have a proper break of three weeks. Then we’ll get together with enough time to prepare for the first game, against Benetton here [on 5 December].
“The boys who aren’t going to be involved have started earlier and worked hard in pre-season. They deserve a break now and then we’ll come back and, with these results, be able to manage our squad into the Six Nations.”
Photo: @GlasgowWarriors/X
The post Franco expected a fight from proud Lions appeared first on SA Rugby magazine.
Franco Smith praised the Lions for pushing his Glasgow Warriors side on Friday night, but admitted the URC front-runners have work to do over the November break.
The post Franco expected a fight from proud Lions appeared first on SA Rugby magazine. Read More
