Warrior spirit shines through as hosts come from behind
Former Scotland boss and our new columnist
AN INSPIRED comeback by Glasgow kept their hopes of a Champions Cup place next season alive. Ospreys are still favourites to hold on to third place in PRO14 Conference A – and the losing bonus they got here could prove vital – but the Warriors have at least kept the pressure up on the Welsh side.
They did that despite having two men carded for the third game in a row, with Ollie Smith being sinbinned in the first half and TJ Ioane following late in the second. And they claimed the win the hard way on the scoreboard too, as they fell 3-15 behind at one point before the boot of Ross Thompson got them back into the contest.
Ospreys took the lead in the fourth minute with an unconverted try by Morgan Morris, and a tricky start then got a lot worse for the home team when the Ospreys were controversially awarded a penalty try, with Glasgow full-back Smith being yellow-carded into the bargain for a deliberate knockon.
That made it 12-0 to the visitors, and Glasgow needed to get a foothold in the game quickly. They did it, too, with a straightforward Ross Thompson penalty, but midway through the half a noarms tackle from Aki Seiuli allowed Luke Price to restore his team’s 12-point lead from in front of the posts.
With Smith back on, the Warriors started to gain the upper hand, and a couple of dominant scrums set up a good position. But the Ospreys defence again proved equal to the task, winning a turnover on their own five-metre line.
Thompson was on target with a longer-range penalty after half an hour, then made it three out of three with the boot a few minutes later. That
made it 9-15 and put a far brighter complexion on the match from a Glasgow point of view as the half-time whistle blew.
The Ospreys upped the tempo at the start of the second half in a bid to regain control, and when full-back Dan Evans burst into the Warriors 22 a try was on the cards. But a tackle from Smith dislodged the ball, and Lee Jones scooped it up and ran almost the length of the pitch to touch down between the posts. Thompson converted, and Glasgow were ahead for the first time in the match at 16-15.
Ospreys were far from finished, though, and when Smith was forced to touch down behind his own line, the visitors had a scrum five.
A clean feed saw them drive at the line four times, and in the end No 8 Gareth Evans was credited with the try, which Price converted.
With Jamie Dobie on at scrum-half, Glasgow’s attack became slicker and quicker, and a brilliant kick ahead by Thompson was collected by Rufus McLean for a score in the right corner. The stand-off added the two points to the winger’s score, and Glasgow were ahead again at 23-22.
A long-range Price penalty went wide as Ospreys tried to hit back, but the Warriors then went further ahead when Seiuli scored off the back of a lineout. Thompson’s conversion made it 30-22.
With ten minutes left TJ Ioane was sent to the bin for a professional foul, and Price scored from the penalty to reduce the gap to five. But the 14 men had just enough energy left to hold on for that win that gives them a glimmer of hope.
“After a dismal first 20 we showed great character to come back into the game for the other 60,” Glasgow head coach Danny Wilson said of his team’s performance. “We took our chances in that middle 40 and held on for those final 15 minutes.
“It’s great to get two wins in a row. We want to build on these results and carry on the momentum into next weekend’s game away to Dragons.”
Scorers. Glasgow. Tries Jones, McLean, Seiuli. Cons Thompson 3. Pens Thompson 3. Ospreys. Tries Morris, penalty try, G Evans. Con Price. Pens Price 2.
Warriors: O Smith (I Keatley 68); R McLean, N Grigg (I Keatley 7-13), R Fergusson, L Jones; R Thompson, S Kennedy (J Dobie 49); A Seiuli (D Evans 71), G Stewart (J Matthews 48-57, 73), E Pieretto, J Scott (K McDonald 55), L Nakarawa, R Harley, T Gordon (T Ioane 60), R Wilson (captain). Unused subs D Rae, R Tagive.
Ospreys: D Evans (captain); D Cross, O Watkin (T Thomas-Wheeler 55), J Hawkins, K Giles; L Price, R Morgan-Williams; G Phillips (R Henry 17), I Phillips (D Lake 62), M Fia, L Ashley (O Cracknell 62), R
Davies, W Griffiths, M Morris, G Evans (S Cross 62). Unused substitutes: T Botha, S Venter, J Thomas.
Referee: S Grove-White (Scotland).
DENMARK’S Jeff Winther claimed a two-shot lead at the halfway stage of the Qatar Masters after making the most of a favourable draw in Doha.
Winther began his second round at 6.45am local time on Friday and carded five birdies and a single bogey to record a second successive 67 and finish eight under par.
With the wind picking up significantly as the day went on none of the later starters were able to catch Winther, with Jamie Donaldson, Jack Senior, Darren Fichardt, Kalle Samooja and Kurt Kitayama sharing second on six under.
“I love coming back here and I have good memories from last year,” said Winther, who finished a shot outside the playoff between Jorge Campillo and David Drysdale 12 months ago.
“I really like this course, it’s great to play and the conditions are fantastic. The greens are very nice. I don’t want to jinx myself but I think they are easy to putt on. They are very true.
“The wind [got] quite severe. We were lucky. On the last three or four holes it was really starting to pick up.”
Play was suspended due to fading light at 5.40pm local time, with Joakim Lagergren, who was four under with three holes to play, one of 15 players who will have to complete their rounds this morning.
Meanwhile, The European Tour has withdrawn England’s Matthew Jordan from the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters after he tested positive for Covid-19. Jordan’s positive result was identified as part of the on-site screening process on Thursday, when he completed a first round of 73 at Education City Golf Club. The 25-year-old was withdrawn from the tournament before the second round and is now in self-isolation.
IF you’re following your dream, the universe will present you with opportunities. I have always believed that you just have to be aware of the world around you to see them.
When you’re paralysed you try to find things you can do that give you some element of freedom, where you feel alive and not fighting your body.
Cycling and swimming give me this and for these short moments each day I am pain-free and feel alive. However, something happened this week that gave me a feeling I haven’t had since paralysis.
In Jamaica, I am surrounded by the ocean. I have spent a huge amount of time in it on this trip. Connecting with the ocean is a very powerful thing. It is a very special experience, especially when you’re paralysed. To feel the water around your body is like nothing else I have felt post-injury.
Going back to the universe sending you signs, a few weeks ago I saw a photo of someone surfing and my immediate thought was ‘God, I would love to do that’. Taking up surfing would be problematic for someone with paralysis, but maybe there was a way.
I sat down looking through the internet and decided to e-mail the World Surfing Association. This was then followed by a quick introduction to Icah Wilmot, Jamaica’s first pro surfer.
Jamaica’s first surfing family can be found in Eight Miles Bull Bay, which sits about eight miles outside Kingston. It is the home to Jamaica’s surfing community so I decided to drive down to go meet Icah.
It took my breath away – a glimpse of the ocean and next to it the surf camp, or should I say the Wilmot family home.
I stop the car and am met by a couple of friendly dogs and then the relaxed figure of Iach. In my mind I thought I will just say hello today as Icah not only surfs but runs an education program for local kids at 1pm each day at the skate park.
But it’s, “we have 20 minutes, let’s go catch a wave” then before I know it I am in the water with Wilmot and a traveling German reggae artist and surfer called Dayton Levi.
There wasn’t much swell each time I went but as the guys say, it’s just about being in the water. There is a mystic feeling or energy around just laying on the board.
You feel more connected to the world, more present in the moment, and as I paddled to catch a wave, nothing else mattered.
It is like nothing I have ever experienced. I now know surfing is going to be a big part of my life.
Like everyone, Covid has hit these guys hard. They have created a surfing paradise out of their home and this is not just about catching waves, this is a lifestyle. Known as Jamnesia, it is a positive mentoring program for local children to learn surfing, and get help with their schoolwork.
With Covid closing schools, what the Wilmots are doing here transcends sport. Gang culture is huge on the island, so by creating surf education programs the Wilmots are changing lives. The surf camp comes alive with music sessions each week which have been graced by some of Jamaica’s hottest new acts over the years.
For me it has become a new spiritual home. And where my surfing journey began.
THE return of James Forrest may well have come too late for Celtic this season and for Neil Lennon, but Scotland and Steve Clarke will be delighted to see his timely return to the pitch last weekend.
James has got so much going for him as a player, and I’m in no doubt that he would have made a massive difference to Celtic’s season had he been available. To be missing his ability to eliminate people has such a knock-on effect, and I think that is one of the reasons why Celtic haven’t done as well.
Normally as a coach you are telling people to move the ball this way or that, but when you see players going past people, it saves you a lot of work!
I don’t really know the ins and outs of the injury. I know my son works there, but I’ve never really asked! You don’t want to pry. But what I do know fine well is just how valuable he is.
If you think back to Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic team, for example, where he’s playing a 4-2-3-1 with two wide men, they could all eliminate people, and then you had a real target man or striker to supply. I think that’s when James was at his best.
Celtic have also really been missing that option of the longer diagonal ball over the top with the winger coming in this season. It’s a pass that may not always come off, but if the opposition back four knows that you have that in your arsenal then they will naturally sit back a bit, which gives you more room to play.
I remember training with Scotland once at Hampden and I actually had to stop the session, because Barry Bannan got the ball in a kind of lefthalf position, and he knows Forrest can make this run, and Forrest knows that Barry can make the pass.
So, Barry’s hit this pass 45 yards, it’s missed the centre-half’s head by about two inches, James has run in, chested it down and smashed it in. It was everything that is beautiful about football, so I had to stop the training and we’ve all had a wee clap. This run was magnificent, and I think that’s what’s been missing from Celtic the last wee while that individual ability to beat people, and wide men who know when to go in behind.
Even if you don’t execute the pass, it tells the back four that the next time they try and hold a high line, you are
going in there again. So, it takes them back. They’re missing that, they’re missing his goals, and I think they are missing that psychological blow to other teams. Teams will always think they are okay to defend against passing, but can they stop someone who can eliminate people? If the opposition double up on him, then you can move it and you’re a player up somewhere else. James had that.
He was having a bit of a frustrating time of it when I first came in as Scotland manager. I’d heard about him when I was at Celtic, then I was lucky enough to work with him at Scotland, but not enough. It was a time when he always seemed to be injured.
Here was this wonderful young talent who never failed to turn up to let the doctors examine him, and then it was decided through doctors from Scotland – and particularly from Celtic – that it would be best if he wasn’t involved.
That was hugely frustrating for him, I used to see it in his face. At that time, when he was about 24 to 26, his mates like Stuart Armstrong and Scott Brown were all enjoying being with us. For me, he was really overprotected at that time.
I just liked him as a person felt sorry for him at that time. I also felt sorry for the coaches, seeing this wonderful kid walking dejectedly walking out the door of Mar Hall on a Sunday night.
There were many players who would just phone up and say, ‘Aw I canny make it’, and they didn’t get invited back too many times to be perfectly honest. It got to the point that it was affecting him. Once he got over that and people realised that he didn’t need protected, he didn’t have to and I be taken off after 70 minutes, this player we were all expecting developed to score goals and make goals. But he was held back for a couple of years by this.
I remember going to see him in a European tie for Celtic when he came on for about 25 minutes. Then after the game, he comes out again with about four different people to do stretches and a warm-down. I was standing with Kenny Dalglish and I said ‘Look at that, here he comes again. If there’s one way of telling a player he isn’t as fit as anybody else, this is it’. So, he’s had to fight these physical and mental barriers to meet his potential.
Towards the end of my time as Scotland manager, he came into the side and then we had a great system with him playing reasonably central. He was comfortable playing wide, and he was comfortable coming in centrally and running in beyond.
It really was a smashing time for him and for us, and then he had that wonderful spell when Brendan came in at Celtic. He’s been so important for them ever since, and it was really unfortunate that he suffered the injury this season.
What else he has got is that his work-rate for the team is phenomenal. He works back tirelessly and helps people, and maybe a lot of people don’t see that. If you’ve got an eye for the game, then you will just get him.
We should be trying to develop players who can play either side and as a striker, and he can do that. He understands where the space is. He knows where he can hurt a team. He’s brave as well. He has that Jimmy Johnstone thing where he gets kicked, but he just gets up and gets going again. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him shirk away from that side of the game.
James has an awful lot going for him, and there’s a right good few years left in him yet, so he will still have so much to offer Celtic in the longer term. In the shorter term, I can see him being such an asset for Scotland at the Euros, and I fully expect him to make the squad.