DAVE Rennie has admitted to considerable disappointment at both George Turner’s indiscretion which cost his team dearly at Glasgow Warriors relinquished a commanding position against Montpellier last week and the scale of the punishment doled out, writes Kevin Ferrie.
The match turned after the hooker was sin-binned for his reckless off the ball barge on Louis Picamoles, the experienced French international No 8 who had clearly deliberately occupied an obstructive running line and Rennie was frustrated by the naivete Turner displayed in making sufficiently vigorous contact that Picamoles required treatment, drawing the attention of the match officials to the incident, but said it had not changed the way the team management feels about their player.
“I won’t divulge the conversations we had around that,” he said. “George is pretty disappointed.
“It was a key moment in the game, but it was only one key moment of a large number. We had pressure on them at that stage and it hurt us going into half-time. He regrets the situation.
“There was a bit of frustration there because there was a lot of obstruction going on off the ball. He was making an effort to get to the bloke who was carrying the ball in behind and his action probably could have been different if he had used a bit of footwork or only pushed him out of the way, but because it was a collision the judiciary got involved and he has been punished.
“I’m disappointed for him but he will learn from it. In the end we still love him; he’s been great for us, one of our best players. I’d say he has learned a lesson.”
While he felt the four week ban Turner subsequently received was harsh, he accepted how it came about and that his players must learn to take responsibility for their actions.
“You’ve got to take it, but the key is not to put ourselves in that position,” said Rennie.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here