Glasgow head coach Gregor Townsend believes they will be back on the road for their Rabodirect PRO12 semi-final no matter what happens at Connacht, but still expects the Warriors’ momentum to be maintained.
Townsend is likely to shake up his side named today and keep some of his top-line players back for a semi-final next week he expects to involve a trip back to the RDS in Dublin to take on Leinster.
“It’s out of our hands,” he said. “If results go to plan we’ll be away, and we’ve no influence on the Leinster-Ospreys game.
“Leinster are in great form, they had a terrific win over Biarritz last week. It’s a tough match for them against Ospreys but we expect them to win.”
This won’t change the attitude to the visit to Galway, where old favourite Dan Parks lies in wait.
“We want to win every game we’re playing and we know how important it is to keep the momentum going after the terrific performance against Ospreys,” said Townsend.
“We’ve not won (in Galway) since 2007 so it’ll be tough, but the best preparation for a semi-final is to win the week before.”
Hooker Pat McArthur isn’t quite sure why they’ve had difficulty at the windy Sportsgrounds for the last five years, with three losses and two draws there.
“They love playing at home just as we love playing here at Scotstoun,” he said. “The way we have to approach it is that instead of looking back at what has been, which we have taken a few times down in Wales, that we have a strong game-plan going into this match.
“We have broken plenty of these records this season, like our away win at Dragons, so we’ll think about now rather than what has happened in the past.”
McArthur thinks that improved away record this year will be a factor when the Warriors go to Connacht and potentially back to Dublin the following week.
“We would obviously love a home semi-final but we have got a reasonably good away record so an away game would not be something that would worry us hugely.
“We won’t worry what happens elsewhere, the attitude we have had all season is everything is up to us.”