“The conversation is about us building and preparing the squad to become the best they can be, and I’ve often said that in the last three years here that our challenge is not necessarily only from the opposition, it’s amongst ourselves,” he added.
“If you have disruption, if you have players coming back from international duty, people who have not played much in the last four or five weeks, and then there’s people that have played a lot, it’s to balance and to get everything back in.
“I know most clubs have the same challenges. The difference is we just have so many players that’s away all the time, so that our broader group needs to just keep gelling in the Glasgow way.”
Of the new injuries, Matthews is hopeful of being back from a neck injury identified after last Saturday’s match by the time Toulon visit Scotstoun next weekend, with Bhatti facing a slightly longer period out, and Rowe now on the long-term list.
“Kyle is seeing the surgeon tonight to make a decision if it’s surgical or not,” explained Smith. “It’s an MCL injury. Unfortunately, he’s had the previous knee reconstruction on that knee. Nothing else is damaged. It’s just now a process to make sure that we get the right procedure in place. It can be anything from eight to 12 weeks. So we make sure that we get the right diagnosis so that we can follow the conservative or surgical route and get him back as soon as possible.
“Jamie’s calf injury is something we didn’t realise in the game. It was something that we noticed after the game. So, yeah, we’ll see. It doesn’t look that serious, but it will keep him out for 10 to 15 days at least.”
Smith also took a moment to pay tribute to Stafford McDowall, who will make his 100th appearance versus Sale Sharks, having been in a position where he was giving serious consideration to quitting pro rugby and returning to the family farm when he was released by Warriors with no club to join just over three years ago.
“He was about to stop playing when I came here three years ago. He took a reduced contract opportunity here and stayed a little bit on and then shot the lights out by the end of the season, being picked for Scotland. Since then, he’s been a stalwart, not just for us, but for Scotland as well, I think.
“I agree, he’s an unsung hero. He’s been playing in the shadow of the Huwipulotu setup [Huw Jones-Sione Tuipulotu centre partnership] and he’s contributed sometimes more than some of the other players.
“It’s a great achievement. I think he’s an excellent person, an excellent man and that’s what we’re more interested in here. And then if they play well, that is a bonus. Obviously, he stuck to the fight. He could have given up a couple of years ago and he didn’t. He reinvented the wheel and I’m really proud of him.”
For their part, Sale Sharks are also looking to get back on the horse after a disappointing performance and outcome last weekend, when they blew a 20-point lead to suffer a home defeat to suffer a 26-27 home defeat to Exeter Chiefs. The CorpAcq Stadium outfit are currently missing full-back Joe Carpenter (ankle), wing Tom Roebuck (toe) and stand-off George Ford, and have diminutive Scotland wing Arron Reed starting in the No 15 jersey for only the third time in his senior career, but Smith doesn’t expect the hosts to move very far away from their kicking game.
“The aerial battle, currently in the modern game, is very important,” he said. “We noticed last week against Scarlets that we ended up having an unbelievable tackle completion rate but we tackled so few times because they just kicked the ball away and ended up winning the crumbs. So, we ended up being without the ball on the wrong side of the pitch.
“We see that in the English Prem often. We know that the style mostly is about territory and about winning that aerial battle, and I think that’s an important thing for them. So, I don’t think they will go away from the model because those players are not playing. I think it will be the same strategy.
“We’ve seen the weather. We’ve seen that it’s going to be windy and wet, so I’m sure that we will face that. But in our game, regardless of who we’re playing, that part is very important anyway, and we’ve spent quite a bit of time preparing our boys for that this week.”
