European Rugby Champions Cup
Townsend rues lack of discipline
ESPN Staff
December 7, 2014
Gregor Townsend's side threatened a famous win but Toulouse proved too good in the end © PA Photos
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Glasgow director of rugby Gregor Townsend admitted indiscipline cost his side from securing a famous victory at Toulouse.

The four-time European champions from the south of France scored 16 of their 19 points in the 10-minute periods when Finn Russell and Leone Nakawara were in the sin bin.

Townsend's men will now have to win the reverse fixture at Scotstoun to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the European Rugby Champions Cup quarter-finals for the first time after the 19-11 defeat.

He said: "The two yellow cards put us under a lot of pressure and gave a team like Toulouse, who were off-loading all over the place, a chance to find their gap.

"But their defence was excellent so we'll have to look at ways to break that down better.

"The penalty count was 14 to five and when you come away from home playing against one of the best teams in Europe with two yellow cards it is very tough to win.

"We should have put more points on the board in the first 30 minutes when we were dominating the game." The Warriors dominated the early exchanges but could only notch three points in the opening 30 minutes as the French side used their scrummaging might to claim a 9-3 half-time lead.

They raced out of the blocks in the second half as Maxime Medard latched onto Jean-Marc Doussain's prod through to score while Russell was on the sidelines for a dangerous tackle.

Nakawara dented his team's hopes when he was sent to the sin-bin for using his feet at a ruck and, by the time Niko Matawalu crossed to score, it was too late.

Duncan Weir could have salvaged a losing bonus-point with the conversion, but he failed from out wide.

Townsend said: "It's certainly unusual that you play the same team next week so it is important to know what we need to do better straight away before we go into the deep analysis over the next couple of days.

"But I was very proud of the effort today, I felt we were in control in the first half but weren't able to put points on the board.

"And to come here against a team who were on fire at times, and being down to 14 men for 20 minutes, but to still be in touch of getting a losing bonus point was a great effort."

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