GREGOR Townsend confessed he switched off halfway through Racing 92’s Champions Cup clash with Munster after realising the French outfit would be doing Glasgow no favours.
The Warriors head coach took time out of preparing for Saturday night’s 29-15 Guinness Pro12 win over Cardiff to cast an eye over his side’s European rivals.
He was hoping Top 14 winners Racing would boost Glasgow’s bid to top Pool 1 by shooting down the group leaders.
But with Racing’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals stubbed out following three straight defeats, the Parisians sent out a much-changed side and found themselves 25 points down by the break, eventually slumping to a 32-7 home defeat.
However, Townsend refused to point a finger of blame at last year’s beaten finalists.
He said: “We watched it, the coaches, and switched it off after half-time when the result was a foregone conclusion.
“Munster played really well. Racing were out of the tournament. They chose to mix up their team and there was only one team that dominated the game.
“The tournament is what it is. You have to play the opposition you’re up against. We played Racing twice at the beginning and that’s just the way it is. We played really well to win both those games.”
After climbing up to fourth in the Pro12 table with their bonus-point win over Cardiff, Glasgow can now turn their attention to this month’s pivotal European double header against Munster and Leicester, which will determine whether they make the last eight for the first time.
“We’ll just have to play really well to beat them,” added Townsend. “Our destiny is still in our hands.
“Munster have played really well this season. They came very close to beating Leicester away in the last round. They lost that in the last kick of the game and I think that’s their only defeat in their last 10 games. So we know what a tough team Munster are. We’ve played them twice already this year.
“It does make it tough for us in that we’ll have to win our last two games to qualify. This group of lads are capable of that and what we showed against Cardiff through the set-piece work of the forwards and through our energy and high-tempo attack is that if we can play like that we’ll have a very good chance next week.”
Glasgow claimed their fifth straight win with victory against Danny Wilson’s Cardiff side thanks to Peter Murchie’s brace in between scores from Pat MacArthur and James Malcolm.
Full-back Murchie was deputising for the rested Stuart Hogg and will have to reprise the role next month when the Scotland man departs for RBS 6 Nations action.
But Townsend has no concerns, saying: “He did really well and the tries were reward for his hard work.
“Peter has a big part at this club and is a real role model for others.”
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