Montpellier 36-26 Glasgow Warriors: We did enough to win - Dave Rennie
- Published
Glasgow Warriors have suffered four defeats from four in the Champions Cup this season
Dave Rennie was proud of Glasgow Warriors' display against Montpellier despite his side succumbing to a fourth straight European Champions Cup defeat.
Warriors ran in four tries but conceded five at the other end to go down 36-26 at the Altrad Stadium.
After last week's narrow defeat by Vern Cotter's side, Rennie believes Warriors again let the French side off the hook.
"I felt last week we did enough to win and didn't and I feel the same today," head coach Rennie said.
"I was really proud of the attitude and effort. We wanted to take the game to them and play a really high pace. I thought we were really physical with and without the ball."
Glasgow led 19-14 at half-time following first-half tries from Fraser Brown, Peter Horne and Nick Grigg. However, two tries in three minutes from Henry Immelman and Benoit Paillaugue after the break swung the match in Montpellier's favour, and when Immelman crossed again Glasgow were always playing catch-up.
"We had an opportunity just after half-time to score again, we made an error and then they scored twice within five minutes," Rennie told BBC Scotland.
"We made a lot of line-breaks, created a lot of opportunities but we just failed to nail a couple of them especially in the second half where we probably should have done better.
Back-to-back wins over Glasgow have given Vern Cotter's Montpellier a shot at making the Champions Cup quarter-finals
"Obviously it's been a challenging campaign because we've won none of our four games, but all of them we've been right in the mix. We've got to take some lessons out of it.
"Our attitude coming in was we were going to try and make a bit of a statement that we are a better side than the results have shown so far.
"We've got to look at a couple of little areas in our game. I just think when we got behind we tended to chase it and we just needed a little more composure in that last 10 or so minutes.
"We've just got to be a little bit more clinical when it counts."
Horne started at fly-half for Warriors with Finn Russell coming off the bench in the second half. With Russell moving to France to join Racing 92 at the end of the campaign, Horne pulling the strings in the number 10 jersey could become a familiar sight for Warriors fans next season.
"We were really keen to give Pete a crack in a game we knew where there was going to be a fair bit of pressure," Rennie explained.
Dave Rennie was impressed with the all-round display of Peter Horne (left) against Montpellier
"It's a big game for Montpellier, a win sees them strongly in the race [for the quarter-finals], a loss means they're gone. We knew they'd put a strong side on the field and it was a great chance to see Pete operating under that sort of pressure.
"I thought he was excellent today and really good at implementing what we wanted to. Some smart kicking options and being a midfield player he defends well. I'm really happy with his contribution."
Glasgow's form in Europe is in stark contrast to their run in the league, having won all 10 of their fixtures in Conference A of the Pro14.
Rennie says the remaining Champions Cup fixtures against Leinster and Exeter will likely be used as opportunities to blood some new talent, although he will not accept any drop in his team's standards.
"I'll be honest, what's important is that we keep trucking in Pro14," he said. "It's going to be irrelevant if we win one or win two in this competition so we may use it to find out a bit more about other guys.
"It [selection] may be based on where we're at from an injury toll point of view. We won't lie down in those games."