Why Glasgow must make mark in Europe to be considered one of the best
"We want to keep expectations out of our environment" has been the mantra of Glasgow Warriors head coach Franco Smith this season. The form of his swashbuckling side is making that increasingly difficult. Riding high at the top of the United Rugby Championship with four regular season matches remaining, having delivered a perfect Champions Cup pool stage with maximum points from their four matches, Glasgow have laid the foundations for an extraordinary season.
Some Warriors fans are even talking – or maybe just whispering – about an unprecedented URC and Champions Cup double, a fanciful notion at the start of the season when Smith was reshaping the squad following the departures of key players like Tom Jordan, Sebastian Cancelliere and Henco Venter. Smith has been at pains to keep a lid on the rising excitement and plaudits surrounding his team, repeatedly pointing out that nothing has been won yet, and highlighting previous campaigns that have been similarly promising but ultimately yielded nothing in terms of trophies. Now the real stuff starts, the business end of the season and knockout rugby when the Bulls come to Scotstoun on Saturday in the Champions Cup last 16.
Warriors have a chance to set-up a home quarter-final in the European Cup for the first time in their history. Outstanding victories over past champions Toulouse and Saracens, among others in the pool stage, secured second seeding and a potential path of home country ties (any semi-final would be played at Murrayfield) all the way until the final in Bilbao. With another host of big names heading for the Scotstoun exit door this summer – Huw Jones, Adam Hastings and Jack Dempsey, among others – this could be Glasgow's greatest opportunity for a shot at European club rugby's biggest prize, and to establish themselves among the elites.
"The recognition they're getting this year and how they've played over the last couple of years, from the URC's point of view, it's there," former Warriors captain Fraser Brown told BBC Scotland. "I still feel like in order for a Scottish team to be recognised in European rugby as a great team, you need to leave your mark on a European stage. So, I still think for Glasgow, even if they went on to win the URC this year, they need to make a mark in Europe.
"It's something that we've never done in order to be put up there in the conversation with some of the best in Europe. "In terms of the players that are leaving in the summer, I do see this as certainly the biggest and best chance that Glasgow have had ever. Whether it's their best chance over the next couple of years?