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'One hell of an athlete' - Glasgow's Scott Cummings pulling up trees in Dave Rennie's youthful front five
Scott Cummings may be a giant of a man at 6ft 6in but off the field the young Glasgow lock looks impossibly fresh-faced and youthful. On the pitch, though, the 20-year-old plays like a hard-nosed veteran rather than a first-season tyro who has made just a handful of competitive starts for the Warriors.
After Dave Rennie’s side ran Munster off the park to record a crushing 37-10 bonus point win that takes them to the top of their Pro14 conference, the Kiwi jokingly took issue with the decision to name Finn Russell as the man of the match. The Glasgow coach suggested that this game was won by a ridiculously young tight five who fronted up against the hard men of Limerick, a front five in which Cummings was conspicuous for his industry, a work rate which was rewarded with the second-half try which brought up the bonus point.
“Scott is an outstanding prospect,” said Rennie. “He’s one hell of an athlete. He scored a try [against the Dragons] in pre-season from about 50 yards so he’s quick, but he also runs great lines and has a great pair of hands. He’s a young man who’s developing his physicality and he’s still got shifts to make there but he’s got the potential to be pretty special so that’s the reason he’s played a lot of footie for us so far.”
Cummings’ emergence in the absence of the injured Jonny Gray epitomises Rennie’s rugby credo. The Kiwi likes big men with fast feet and good hands who are comfortable running with the ball, so instead of partnering Tim Swinson with the hulking Brian Alainu’uese or Greg Peterson, Cummings has played in all four of Glasgow’s wins behind a front row of 21-year-old tighthead Zander Fagerson, 24-year-old loosehead Jamie Bhatti and 24-year-old hooker George Turner. Before this season, Bhatti had never started for Glasgow, while in four seasons at Edinburgh Turner only made a dozen appearances, all off the bench.
Despite their youthful front five’s scrum struggling badly and lineout performing fitfully, this was Glasgow’s most emphatic win against over Munster. Last year the visitors won all four matches between the two sides, although three were painfully tight encounters, but this time the Warriors totally overwhelmed Munster, showing what Rennie called “more intensity and accuracy, an ability to build pressure ... I thought our defence was outstanding and brutal.”
The platform for this win was what Rennie called “our outstandingly brutal defence”. Openside Callum Gibbins was once again a wrecking ball at the breakdown as the Warriors leeched an unprecedented 19 turnovers from a side which is notoriously parsimonious with possession.
Glasgow were, however, equally impressive in attack, despite missing four of their starting back division. The Warriors threw the ball around at every opportunity, playing at a ferociously high-tempo and attacking from their own 22 from the outset. Sometimes they ran into trouble deep in their own territory, but the tactic also yielded the crucial try just before half-time when eight backs and forwards combined in a move that started in the home 22 and ended up with Lee Jones’ score.
“Over the previous three weeks, we felt we hadn’t actually performed,” said Cummings. “Munster came over here three from three and with a great away record, but we knew that if we could match them physically, our speed would eventually prevail. We’re finally clicking and certainly gelling as an attacking team.”
One of the defining moments came after Glasgow took an early 10-0 lead, Munster’s big men throwing their weight around, leading to a 20-man outbreak of handbags under the visitors’ posts after they twice infringed to stop the Warriors scoring. “Everyone got involved, you don’t leave one of your guys,” said Cummings. “We knew they would come at us physically, so standing our ground was a statement. Those are the moments you have to front up.”
Cummings certainly did that, capping an outstanding game with the bonus point try, a sharp run-in from five yards after wing Leonardo Sarto had muscled his way through an incredible seven Munster tackles. By that stage, Glasgow’s 15-man offloading game and Chiefs-like determination to spread it wide at every opportunity saw Munster run ragged.
“Dave says that one of the differences between northern and southern hemisphere rugby is the front five’s ability to play with the ball, so we have done a lot more work in the front five on handling, our speed in the game, to make sure we have 15 players on the pitch who can all handle, all carry, all run support lines. Three of the tries against Munster had forwards showing good hands to be involved.
“We know that if we keep the tempo high sides will drop off in the last 20. We are extremely fit and expect to step up a level in the last 20. If we just kept going at it then eventually there will be spaces. Our mantra is that we’re going to play the ball as quickly as possible, that we’ll never slow the ball down – instead we’ll keep it moving. The opportunities tend to come when we’ve had three minutes of phase and both teams are tired, but we can keep going and move the ball a wee bit quicker.”
Treviso, be very afraid.