THE HERALD REPORTS

Evans can be Glasgow’s Euro surprise

HENRY McCALL October 08 2008
Ally Kellock, the Glasgow captain, believes Max Evans can be one of this season's key players in the Heineken Cup.

The Warriors launch their campaign against the Dragons in Wales on Saturday and Kellock says Evans can make a big impression in his first season in the competition.

"I have a strong feeling that Max will be outstanding at that level," said the captain. "If we can get the ball to him in space the way we did recently against Llanelli, he will do a lot of damage.


"His feet are unbelievable and he is such a fantastic runner with the ball. He is the last guy you want to encounter one-on-one in training."

Kellock laughed off the notion that a trip to Newport will be a low-key start to the tournament for the Warriors, just a week after they faced Heineken Cup holders Munster in the Magners League in front of a 20,000-plus crowd in Limerick.

"Everyone knows we are stepping up this weekend," he said. "There will be the buzz, the publicity and the hype that comes with European competition.

"I won't have to do anything to get the lads into the right frame of mind. If anything it will be a case of keeping the lid on them. The Heineken Cup has evolved into an enormous event. When youngsters start climbing the pro rugby ladder, this is what they aspire to."

Kellock added: "Facing Munster was the ideal rehearsal. It was the biggest crowd that most of the guys had appeared in front of in a club game and the atmosphere was fantastic. There will be just as big a buzz at Rodney Parade on Saturday."

A win in Wales would act as the perfect springboard ahead of the showdown with tournament favourites Toulouse at Firhill the following Friday.

Kellock is thrilled at the prospect of squaring up again to the French side. "As far as I am concerned it is brilliant that they are in our section. I was lucky enough to play them a few times when I was at Edinburgh and it is always a marvellous experience.

"Of course, we will learn from them, but we are also determined to get a result, the way we did against Biarritz a year ago. The best time to face any French team at home is early on in a competition and I like the way the draw has panned out for us.

"After that, we have back-to-back matches with Bath, which will be very tough. So we need to get a good start at Newport. And in the circumstances, I would rather be playing the Dragons away from home, as opposed to Toulouse or Bath."

Edinburgh take on Leinster at Murrayfield in their first game. The Magners League champions have lost their last two games against Connacht and Munster, but forwards coach Jonno Gibbes has warned they won't repeat the same mistakes on Saturday.

"There's a lot riding on the first Heineken Cup round for all teams and we're expecting a tough challenge there," he said. "There are a few lessons to be learned from the last two games. You don't get a lot of benefit from sweeping things under the carpet. Losing is never pleasant, and certainly not two weeks in a row. Maybe some of the mistakes were repeated which is disappointing.

"You could bounce clichés around and say that losing was the wake-up call that we needed' and all that sort of stuff, but the reality is that we lost two weeks in a row and they hurt. It's going to be quite painful looking through that stuff, but we're moving on and moving forward.

"We made the same mistakes two weeks in a row. They're pretty easy to identify because we're pretty clear on how we want to play the game. Being slightly off the boil has made quite a big difference in each result. As far as I'm concerned past games are history. We have an opportunity to test ourselves in a pretty hostile environment on Saturday."

Leinster are expected to bring more than 1000 fans.

This article was posted on 8-Oct-2008, 07:52 by Hugh Barrow.