THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON
THE icy wind sweeping Scotland has already bitten hard in the Glasgow rugby camp as the team prepares for Magners League action tonight at Firhill.

Gary Mercer, Glasgow's defence coach, comes from the plain-talking school of rugby league and he didn't mince his words when asked yesterday why his side had shipped over 60 points in their last two outings, albeit in the Heineken Cup. Quite simple, he said, the players were unprofessional.

Tonight they bid to protect an unbeaten home run against a Cardiff team leading the Magners League, but shorn of six first choices by tomorrow's Wales international. The Glasgow coaches have made three changes to the side which beat Viadana 41-31 last week, with the expected recalls of experienced centres Andrew Henderson and Daryl Gibson (and the dropping of star summer signing Lome Fa'atau), and a return for Thom Evans from injury. Up front, there is a straight swap of Welshman Andy Newman for Kiwi Dan Turner.

And Mercer expects to see an improvement. He said: "As a group we know we were unprofessional against Viadana. We were averaging about 18 points in the last four games in the Magners League, and so to then go and concede a combined 64 points in our next two is just not acceptable.

"Being professional is about little things - how you prepare yourself during the week, how you warm up, your mindset on game day - but it all affects your performance in attack and defence. Defence wins you games, and when you look at the Saracens game, defence lost it for us.

"Attack kept us in it - we got that right - but defence has to be right every week at this level or it costs you. This was the first time I'd spotted unprofessionalism with this squad, to be honest, and we have spoken about it as a group."

Mercer added: "We're not a good team yet; we're getting there and are building towards a good team, and Sean made good signings last year and this year to help that. But a good team would have put 60 points past Viadana. We didn't, and that's a real disappointment. Some boys were below par and they have to regroup and turn it around.

"It was a reality check. This is about fronting up this week and not giving chances to a team we know is competitive in the Magners League. It doesn't matter whether they're missing six players or 11; if we don't front up and be professional we'll suffer again."

Fa'atau has paid for his slow start to a new career in Glasgow, the winger being dropped from the squad due to the return to fitness of Evans and the form of Hefin O'Hare. Shade Munro, Glasgow's assistant coach, said yesterday that the team had not helped the newcomer, with him receiving only a handful of passes in recent times, but admitted that he also had to get to grips with the fact he was not playing Super 14 rugby with the ball flying wide regularly and had to go looking for it more.

Cardiff are on song right now, having won both Heineken Cup games and five out of six Magners League matches. Glasgow have beaten Cardiff only once in their last six meetings - the Blues' only defeat in 12 games with Scottish sides - but that was the 22-3 loss in the last match in Glasgow, at the start of this year.

David Young, Cardiff's head coach, said: "Obviously we are all pleased to be top of our group in the Heineken Cup, but our focus this week will be totally on Glasgow and the Magners League. I've been pleased with our away form this season. We've recorded good wins against Munster and the Dragons on the road and will be aiming to keep up that kind of performance [tonight].

"We know it won't be easy. Glasgow are a very strong side with a good home record, and we lost up there when we played them last season. I thought they were one of the best teams in the Magners League last year and had a big bearing on where the trophy ended up.

"We recorded a good win over them earlier this season, but know we must improve on our performance against Harlequins to get anything out of the game."

This article was posted on 23-Nov-2007, 12:14 by Hugh Barrow.