Glasgow know that if they play to their optimum level they can beat any side in the Guinness PRO12, and every game is a must-win, believes lock Tim Swinson.
The Scotland cap didn’t play in the 1872 Cup defeat to Edinburgh at BT Murrayfield last week but believes that a slip in standards will be righted for tomorrow’s crunch visit of Scarlets to Scotstoun.
“The bottom line is if we play to the best of our ability then we compete with any side in the PRO12, and at one time or another we’ve beaten every other team in the PRO12 in the last two years,” he pointed out.
“I always make the joke that if I play the perfect game at any time in my career, I’ll retire straight away. So far I’ve played eight or nine years at this level and haven’t managed it.
“Week to week there’s things we need to change and things we didn’t do quite right. That was prevalent against Edinburgh last week and there’s a been a focus on fixing things this week.”
The very rare back-to-back nature of the 1872 Cup games gave Edinburgh the chance to properly analyse what Glasgow had done in the first leg and they did it better for the second leg, he believes.
“There’s been a focus on getting our processes right,” he continued. “We’re a quality side with fantastic players, in the entire 46 of the first team squad.
“Whatever happened in Edinburgh, this was always going to be huge game, regardless. Scarlets are a great side, they beat us down there earlier in the season and last year we had two hard-fought games, and we won both but not by many.
“They’ve got quality players and play at a high pace, they have a lot of good ball carriers and we know how good John Barclay is from his time here, so it should be a quality game of rugby.”
As for being a must-win game, they’re all that from Glasgow’s position, argues Swinson.
“Getting to the final of the PRO12 last year was just one step on from where we were the season before and is still not where we want to be,” he said.
“Every game is a must win when you;’re at the top of the table. If we want to be the top side in this competition, we should be betaing every team regularly.”
Despite inflicting defeat on the Ospreys last week Scarlets have a serious front row crisis coming into the game. The new Wales international tight head Samson Lee is out with a neck problem that could affect his Six Nations prospects, and five other front row forwards are out, including the experienced Ken Owens, Emyr Phillips and Phil John.
With the weather forecast not great for game time, it could be a chance for the Warriors’ front row to bounce back after being clearly edged in the two games against Edinburgh.
“Once in the while the weather’s not that great in Glasgow,” added Swinson. “Forwards win games, backs decide by how many is the old adage, and sometimes it’s going to be tight affair because of weather conditions and I expect we might need a big forward effort.”