European Rugby Champions Cup: Gregor Townsend praises Glasgow's defence
Saturday 25 October 2014 23:05, UK
Glasgow head coach Gregor Townsend believes the Warriors remain on course for the European Rugby Champions Cup quarter-finals.
His side took a giant leap towards the knockout stages with a 15-13 triumph over Montpellier at the Altrad Stadium on Saturday evening.
He said: "We understood what this game meant. This was our first away game, Montpellier picked up a bonus point last week, Toulouse won today and could have been clear at the top of this group.
"We produced a huge defensive effort, and kept knocking Montpellier back, especially in our part of the field."
Finn Russell produced a faultless kicking display with his five penalties from five attempts leading his side to glory and sending a statement to Scotland supremo Vern Cotter.
The Warriors had to sustain spells of heavy pressure from the Top 14 side, but they held on to make it a two horse race in pool four.
JP Doyle awarded a late penalty try to hand a losing bonus-point to Montpellier but Glasgow march into back-to-back matches with Toulouse on top of their group.
Townsend spent a spell with Montpellier 10 years ago, which gave him valuable insight into the French game.
Assured
That, coupled with Russell's assured performance led the PRO12 runners-up to victory, and Townsend hailed his latest star.
He said: "This was Finn Russell's first European start. He had a very mature performance, it was only his second start of the season, coming back from injury.
"He had learned a lot from his last game, some of his kicking and decision making today was excellent, his composure for the goal-kicking was superb.
"I sort of had an insight to the French psyche this week and what we could expect on how Montpellier would try to assert their dominance, a lot of driving mauls, pressure in the scrum.
"We made good decisions when we had possession in the first half, and it gave us a little lead. It kept the pressure on Montpellier to do something, and they have the players to do so. But we defended really well."
