While several of his international colleagues in the Glasgow squad have had time off in the past fortnight to recover and refresh following their exertions in the Autumn Test period, George Turner says he is delighted that circumstances have conspired against him being handed a mid-season break.
Injury to Fraser Brown and the recall by Sale Sharks of Ewan Ashman has left Danny Wilson short of options at hooker, and rather than rely on fringe men Johnny Matthews and Grant Stewart for the team’s recent matches against Benetton and Dragons, the Warriors head coach has asked Turner to soldier through.
The 29-year-old did miss out on Scotland’s game against South Africa due to a rib injury so is not feeling run into the ground yet, but he will require respite at some point during the next month. The good news is that Brown is making a quicker than anticipated return to action from his knee injury and could now come into contention before the end of the calendar year.
“I missed that South Africa week, but actually, the start of the season was a bit of disrupted with a couple of injuries meaning I only played once or twice before the internationals,” Turner said. “So, I’m keen to keep going. It is still fairly early in the season, so it is nice to get away and refresh, but at my stage I think game time is what I need at the moment.”
In any case, the prospect of playing in the opening round of the Champions Cup on Sunday against La Rochelle, last season’s beaten finalists, is enough to numb any aches and pains.
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“Away trips to France are always interesting, and with La Rochelle, they are a massive team with some brilliant players like Will Skelton and Grégory Alldritt,” Turner added. “We played well against the Dragons last week, but we know there are things we could do better.
“It is pretty tight in the league [United Rugby Championship] and we didn’t get that away win in Treviso a fortnight ago, which has left us behind where we want to be, but we can see a way back from that. However, in the Champions Cup, there isn’t that breathing space, with one slip up potentially meaning you can’t make it out your group — so there is a lot more pressure this week, but that is exciting.”
Turner played the last 12 minutes off the bench in the teams’ previous meeting in December 2019, which Glasgow won 12-7. “La Rochelle have physically big players, who are also really fast and very skilful, but we’ll take confidence from several players having gone there and got the win a few seasons ago, so we’ll go there to play our game and have some fun,” he said.
La Rochelle v Glasgow Warriors,
Champions Cup, Sunday, kick-off 3.15pm
TV: BT Sport 3, 3pm