Ambitious Glasgow Warriors reveal new goal for next season and why Zebre friendly venue has changed again

As well as defending their URC title, progress in Europe has been earmarked as a key target for 2024-25. The Warriors were eliminated in the last 16 of the Investec Champions Cup last season, but the hope is that the big-game experience they honed in the URC play-offs will help them go further this time.

They have been drawn in Pool 4 of the Champions Cup and will play Sale Sharks and Racing 92 at home and Toulon and Harlequins away in the group stage. Glasgow have never gone further than the quarter-finals before but there is a feeling that they are better equipped than ever to take the next step in Europe’s top-tier club competition.

As good as they were last season - and they were excellent in beating the Stormers, Connacht and the Bulls in the play-offs to claim the URC title - there is scope for improvement, according to Pete Murchie, the defence coach who played such a key role in last season’s stunning triumph.

“I guess the first thing is we haven’t won the lot,” said the Murchie. “There’s still Europe, where we didn’t get past the round of 16, so there’s easily something there to tap in. I think we can get better. I think it’s a group that is by and large staying together, so there’s no reason why we can’t go and achieve more.

"There’s probably not a mindset of going defending things, because that’s quite a negative connotation in terms of everyone coming to attack you. I think it’s about going out there and going to get it again. We know what it takes to a certain extent, how we got ourselves into that position, what it takes to win big games, how it felt afterwards. And you want it again.”

Glasgow will look to challenge on two fronts and although the Champions Cup doesn’t begin until December, Murchie is already thinking about how they can improve on last season’s showing which saw them beat Bayonne and Toulon but lose to Northampton and Exeter in the pool stage before being edged out 28-24 by Quins away in the round of 16. Glasgow will return to the Stoop in the group stage this season for another reunion with their former coach, Danny Wilson.

“I think if you look at all four groups, they are all hard,” said Murchie. “I think everyone would say our group is hard but so is every other group. I don’t see an easy group out of those four. Last year we were competitive. I thought here against Northampton we were bang average, to be honest. But in the other three [pool stage] games we were very, very competitive. Bayonne was an excellent win away from home. Against Exeter we all know what happened in that game – we gave a good account of ourselves with lots of young players. And then Toulon here we obviously won.

“Quins [in the last 16] was tight but there is improvement to be made. As I say, in the Northampton game we weren’t very good. But we’ve got a group that’s still together, that’s had this experience, they are seasoned internationals and we have to really go after that [the Champions Cup] as well. They will be tough, tough games but that’s where we need to be aiming for, to take extra steps in that competition.”

Glasgow’s historic victory over the Bulls in the URC final at Loftus Versfeld was a result that made the rugby world sit up and take notice. To beat one of South Africa’s leading franchises in their own backyard required a monumental effort and head coach Franco Smith and his players deserved all the plaudits that came their way. But Murchie knows that success brings its own issues and fully expects Glasgow to be targeted when the new URC season kicks off next month.

“There will be a number of teams who think they can win the competition, quite rightly, so we’re going to have to go and earn it,” he said. “No-one is going to come here and give it to us. I guess you have a bit of a target on your back, so we’re going to have to go and fight for it and improve. That’s the mindset: it’s just getting better and improving. We have young players coming through pushing, and that’s how you get better: it’s the pressure coming from the young lads pushing on the older guys.”

The younger players are likely to be given an opportunity this weekend when Glasgow travel to Italy to play Zebre in their first pre-season match. The game on Saturday night has been moved back to Parma having been previously switched to Reggio Emilia and the Warriors are expected to leave behind their international players who were involved in Scotland’s summer tour and returned to training later than the rest of the squad.

There is a home pre-season match against Connacht scheduled for the following Saturday before the URC kicks off for Glasgow against Ulster in Belfast on September 21. Unsurprisingly, Murchie has reported that the squad is in fine fettle after last season’s achievements but no-one is getting carried away.

“There’s definitely a spring in the step, 100 per cent,” said the coach. “It was an awesome experience to go through, watching the guys grow and get better and better and rise to the occasion and just nailing those play-off games. So, definitely a spring in the step. But we’re quite a humble group, to be brutally honest. There’s no prima donnas in this group. There’s not really a place for ego here. The guys are just ready to crack on.”