Glasgow Warriors centre Stafford McDowall is relishing the chance to kick off a new era at the club in Inverness this Friday.
Former Italy national coach Franco Smith has replaced Danny Wilson as the head coach and the professionals from Scotstoun face English top-table opponents Worcester Warriors at the Caledonian Stadium this week to kick-start their pre-season.
It comes just two weeks before Warriors travel to Italy to tackle Benetton in their URC (United Rugby Championship) opener.
The fixture at Caley Thistle’s home venue is also in recognition of Highland Rugby Club’s centenary year.
Side relishing chance for north visit
Bringing the match up to the Highlands is important to 24-year-old McDowell as he spelled out the importance of switching the game from Glasgow.
He said: “One of our main mantras here is inspire communities, and Inverness is part of the Glasgow Warriors community.
“We’re really excited to play this game. Some of the boys haven’t been up to the north of Scotland yet, so they will get to experience how nice it is up there and see a slightly different culture to what we’re used to at Glasgow.
“As a Premiership team, they will be a high-quality outfit. They will be physical and they’ve got some marquee players.
“I know Duncan Weir and Sione Vailanu have played there and they only say good things about the squad. We expect a very tough challenge.”
Sore ending used in right manner
Glasgow’s season ended in shattering fashion when they suffered a 76-14 thumping in the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals at the hands of Leinster in Dublin in June, which led to Wilson’s departure.
However, McDowall, a former Scotland under-18 and under-20 international, explained that bitter ending has already been shelved and the focus is on Worcester on Friday and the next pre-season game against Ulster seven nights later.
He said: “We’ve been working on the structures Franco wants to put in place.
“We’re heading in a good direction and we’re working really hard to fix (what happened) at the tail end of last season.
“We have used what happened in the right way. There are no hangovers, that’s all in the past, but we also know that’s not a true representation of Glasgow Warriors.
“We’ve used it as the right kind of fuel to drive us on as we go into pre-season.
“We were in at the end of last season, but how much can you debrief a game like that? There were lessons learned from it, but we’re back at pre-season and we’re not going to dwell on it.”
And when asked what differences there have been since the change of head coach, he said: “There is a lot more emphasis on attacking, running rugby. A lot of detail goes into our attack. We can maybe look to express ourselves a little bit more.
“We will have a bit more of an attacking mindset and play more on the front foot.”
Aiming to impress new head coach
Last season, McDowell made 10 appearances for the Warriors and he aims to press for more starts in 2022/23.
He said: “My target, like every season, is to play as much as a can. I work as hard as I can to achieve that.
“It’s a good thing for me having a new coach come in with new ideas and it gives me a fresh start to get my head down and work hard and I hope to kick on.”
Worcester Warriors won the Premiership Cup and finished 11th in their division last season.
The club were recently issued with a winding-up petition over unpaid tax, but Adam Hewitt, one of the club’s long-term partners and main shirt sponsor, is covering the logistical costs of the side’s trip to Inverness.
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