Peter Murchie relishing opportunity for Glasgow to reach Challenge Cup final

Assistant coach Peter Murchie is relishing a “massive opportunity” for Glasgow Warriors to reach the Challenge Cup final this year.

The Scotstoun outfit have an exciting two weeks ahead with their first European semi-final to come against Scarlets in Wales at the weekend followed by a URC play-off quarter-final against Munster at home.

Glasgow maintained their unbeaten home record in the URC thanks to a 29-27 win over Connacht on Saturday and Murchie is now looking forward to a huge game against Scarlets.

He said: “We have had a really good day. We reviewed the game we just played and there is always a spring in the step coming into semi-final week.

“We spoke about the occasion. I am sure there will be a full stadium down in Scarlets so it is a massive opportunity, a semi-final, you are obviously one away from a final and an opportunity to win something so there is an excitement.

“For the group it is excellent to have the opportunity to get to a big final.

“They haven’t happened every year, the last time for the club would have been the Celtic Park final (2019 Guinness PRO14 final).

“It would be something to cherish. It is a massive event and if we could get ourselves to Dublin it would be a big event, I am sure Glasgow would be behind us and there would be a big turnout from the city to watch us but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, we have a tough one this weekend to get through.”

Murchie could not say if weekend casualties Huw Jones (head), Jamie Dobie (knee), Cole Forbes (hamstring) and Lucio Sordoni (head) would be fit for the semi-final but is heartened by the strength in depth in the Warriors squad.

He said: “There is nothing to report on the guys that came out, they are still being assessed.

“But we are hoping that there is nothing major and we will have a good squad to select from at the weekend and hopefully we will have a couple of guys coming back to us who have been injured in the last couple of weeks.

“So we will have a strong squad.

“If players are in your squad they are good enough to play and when they play they generally repay you and it is a good loop to be on.

“If guys think they have a genuine opportunity they train hard during the week.

“If they don’t have that then human nature dictates that you maybe are not going to work as hard during the week.

“In pretty much every position there is three you can pick from. That’s something that we maybe haven’t had in the last couple of years but we have now so that’s brilliant.”