Will the festivities never end for fans of Glasgow Warriors? They warmed up through early December with back-to-back wins in Europe, celebrated Christmas with the two wins against Edinburgh that brought the 1872 Cup back to Scotstoun and can now charge their glasses one more time for the news that a posse of top players have made speedy recoveries from injury and are expected to be back in action before long.
Sam Johnson leads the charge with a clean bill of health after suffering a badly broken jaw against Sharks last October. Confirming the 29-year-old centre’s status, the Warriors attack coach Nigel Carolan said: “Sam was available last week. It was quite a severe injury he had with his broken jaw, so we needed to manage his return and his return to contact over the last few weeks. He is champing at the bit for selection, and it will come in the next couple of weeks.”
With Johnson back in the picture, and presumably anxious to stake a claim to regain his place in the Scotland squad ahead of the Six Nations, Glasgow’s midfield cup runneth over at the moment.
Carolan said: “It is difficult with our centres, a massive headache. You have Sione Tuipulotu, Stafford McDowall in the form of his life, and Huw Jones, who had tremendous games against Bath and Perpignan. So we have four guys and we can play any combination of the four. We have just been rotating them; they don’t have bad games so it is difficult to manage their expectations of game time. But it’s not a bad headache to have.”
Carolan also revealed that Rory Darge, the flanker who has been missing since September after undergoing surgery on a serious ankle injury, is also very close to coming back. “We’re very hopeful to have him within a month,” the coach said. “He’s running now and we’re trying to up the ante on that side of things. Hopefully he will return early Six Nations, worst case middle.”
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Scott Cummings (foot) and Zander Fagerson (hamstring) are believed to be making better than anticipated progress with their injuries as well. Carolan admitted that Glasgow may not be able to benefit from their recoveries in the current block of games, but noted that it was still good news for Scotland.
While Edinburgh’s woes have been mounting, the sun has been shining in the west as the Warriors have won six of their past seven games. However, Carolan stressed that there is no room for complacency now, especially as their next opponents are the Stormers, the reigning URC champions, who are heading to Scotstoun on Sunday.
“When you work in sport, especially as a coach, perfection is the enemy of good,” he said. “When things are good, you just want perfect.
“I definitely think we are in a good space, but we’re not sitting back. We can still see a lot of areas where we can be better, so we’re just making sure the lads don’t get too comfortable because we’re on a winning run. We’re up there now but people are snapping at our heels, so we just need to keep pushing forward.”
