‘George Horne doesn’t need a lecture from us’: Glasgow Warriors scrum-half backed by coach

The scrum-half knew he had erred on Saturday when his temper spilled over and he fired the ball at Ulster hooker Tom Stewart after Glasgow had been awarded a penalty.

The brainfreeze moment proved costly because the penalty was reversed and Ulster went on to score just before half-time to lead 19-14 at the break. The Warriors fought back to claim a 33-33 draw, despite being reduced to 13 men in the closing stages.

Nigel Carolan, the Glasgow assistant coach, knows Horne’s fieriness helps make him the player he is but the 30-year-old knew he had overstepped the mark on this occasion.

“George is obviously not happy with himself,” said Carolan. “He was a bit sick at half-time as well that it cost us.

Horne's a mile a minute

“But it’s not about not sitting down with George and explaining it. George knows he's got a control dial himself and for him it's a balancing act. He's at his best when that's right on the edge and that's why he's been so good for us over the last few years.

“He plays right on the edge, he's a mile a minute. He's such a threat to the opposition, but just when it goes over, it tips over. It hurt us at the weekend, but George doesn't need a lecture in terms of that.

“He knows himself. He's an experienced player and he's one of our leaders and he knows that it just tipped over and he just needs to try and control that a little bit better.”

The high-scoring draw leaves Glasgow with eight points from their opening two fixtures in the United Rugby Championship and they sit fifth in the standings, two points off the lead ahead of the visit of Connacht this Friday.

While they may feel that Ulster at home is a game they should have won, it still represents the best start to a campaign by the Warriors in the six seasons of the URC, a fact acknowledged by Carolan who admitted there was mixed emotions after the game.

Are we happy or are we sad?

“We were in that funny state of are we happy or are we sad, but I think it was pretty fair on the two teams to share the spoils. Three points wasn't the worst. We're on eight points now. I can't remember since I've been here being on eight points after two games. We're not in a bad position, knowing that we've got a lot of room to get better.”

The attack coach reckons it takes three games for Glasgow to get fully into their stride so he hopes to see more progress this week.

“I think I'm always cup half-full,” added Carolan. “We can look at it whatever way we like, but there's still just little bits of rust and bits of errors in our game, but I think some really good intent.”

Carolan said that Jamie Ritchie, Kyle Steyn and Alex Craig were all making good progress as they work their way back from long-term injuries, although none was likely be involved against Connacht. There is also a doubt over centre Stafford McDowall who sustained a head injury in the Ulster game.

“He got a concussion on Saturday, so we're just going through the protocols there,” said Carolan. “We won't know how he's shaping up until Tuesday.”