European Challenge Cup final: Glasgow Warriors 'have got the beating' of Toulon, says assistant coach Nigel Carolan

ByBen Southby

Updated 15/05/2023 at 18:47 GMT+1

Glasgow Warriors assistant coach Nigel Carolan believes his side "have got the beating" of Toulon as they prepare to face them in their first-ever European Challenge Cup final after beating Scarlets to reach Friday’s contest. “We know we've got the beating of Toulon,” he predicted. “To go one step further we know is well within our reach and something we can control.”

Glasgow Warriors "have got the beating" of Toulon in their first European Challenge Cup final, according to assistant coach Nigel Carolan.

The Scottish outfit will take on four-time European Challenge Cup runners-up at Ireland’s Aviva Stadium on Friday as both sides look to win the trophy for the first time.

Although Warriors are tasting European final action for the first time, Carolan is not content with just reaching the final but wants to go “one step further”.

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"With French and English teams in this competition, to come out in the top two is something we are proud of," he said. "But we know we've got the beating of Toulon. To go one step further we know is well within our reach and something we can control.

"If we can get all parts of our game to function in the way we expect, hopefully, we go one step further and bring home that silverware."

They will be without Fly-half Tom Jordan after he picked up a five-match suspension for a red card 25 minutes into the loss against Munster in the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals.

Having been a man sort and experienced playing with 14 players, Carolan urged his squad to be "tidy about everything” in Dublin.

"It [Jordan’s red card] bit us against Munster and you know how difficult it is to play without 15 players,” Carolan added. “But it's not a case of us going in saying 'we need to be disciplined’.

"It's something that we try to focus on every game. But it's those controllable penalties: making sure our hands are onside, our feet are onside, we roll away when we need to roll away.

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"They're a team that thrives in chaos and are a little bit looser than French teams tend to be. We need to make sure we don't get caught up in that loose game.

"It's inevitable we're going to turn the ball over at some stage so we just need to re-gather and get our shape back either in attack or defence."

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