'Ten minutes could have unravelled Glasgow season'
Glasgow Warriors let victory slip from their grasp in South Africa
- Published
A desperate 10-minute spell against Lions may have derailed Glasgow Warriors' entire season, according to former Scotland captain John Barclay.
Glasgow conceded four tries early in the second half as they went down 44-21 in Johannesburg.
The damaging defeat meant Franco Smith’s side dropped from first to fourth in the United Rugby Championship (URC) table and could ultimately cost them an easier potential route through the play-offs.
"Glasgow just came unravelled," Barclay told the BBC Scotland Rugby Podcast.
"How do you go and concede four tries in 10 minutes? That's almost unthinkable. How can we not get hold of this game? How can we not tactically switch this up so this doesn't keep occurring?
"But I played in games where you're not really aware - then, in 10 minutes you're like, 'how have we got here? How did that 10 minutes happen?'
"I'm not close enough to it to know what that is, but certainly this one looks like a lack of maybe leadership or mental robustness, whatever you want to call it, for 10 minutes.
"And that's probably the difference of getting a home quarter-final, semi-final, final. And that's what will hurt the most. Ten minutes and it's costing the season potentially."
Warriors face Zebre at Scotstoun in the final match of the regular season on 31 May knowing even a bonus-point victory will leave them relying on other results going their way to secure the top-two finish that would guarantee a home quarter-final and semi-final.
Barclay says that having possibly squandered their chance of a more favourable draw, Glasgow must embrace the challenge that now lies in front of them.
"They may take inspiration from Munster last year who won five away games in a row to win the league," said Barclay, who played for Glasgow between 2005 and 2013 before going on to win the Pro12 in 2017 with Scarlets.
"I look back and there's not been many semi-final away wins in the course of the league.
"I know we did that with Scarlets, went to Leinster and no-one gave us a chance to win. And you can suddenly quite quickly find yourself in a final."