AT THE end of March, in a display that made locals in Limerick gawp in shock and possibly awe, Glasgow Warriors laid waste to Munster at Thomond Park in the United Rugby Championship. Scoring four tries in the first half and accelerating into a 28-0 lead, the stuff they produced was borderline cosmic. They ran with elan. They were thunderous, ambitious and lethal.
That win came after Glasgow put 50 on Zebre and not long before they put 70 on the Dragons in the Challenge Cup. It was the continuation of an unbeaten run that was more thrilling than anything Glasgow had delivered since the halcyon days of 2015 when Gregor Townsend’s team stormed to a Pro12 title.
Fraser Brown, the veteran Glasgow Warriors hooker, tells a story about his coach Franco Smith and the endlessly whirring machinery in the brain of the former South African ten. It occurred in the midst of all of those victories.
Brown says that Smith contacted him in the week of the Munster
