Gregor Townsend confident work in training can translate into Glasgow wins GLASGOW coach Gregor Townsend is confident that the disappointing start to his tenure can be turned around swiftly, despite his team heading this week into the den of the reigning PRO12 champions. Like the Warriors, the Ospreys have also endured a sluggish start, losing their opening matches, away to Treviso and at home to Ulster. Glasgow suffered defeat at Ulster and then slumped to an 18-13 reverse at the hands of the Scarlets in their first match at Scotstoun Stadium. Townsend is encouraged by the fact that the critical failures against Ulster, concession of penalties and ball at the lineout, were hugely improved on Friday night, but was less encouraged by his side's failure to hold on to possession in key areas. "It is important that the players realise that the work they are putting in is producing play that could or should have led to tries and wins," he said. Our discipline was outstanding on Friday night - we gave away four penalties in the scrum and only two in other areas of the game, and we got 100 per cent lineout ball, so the work we did on the training field was transferred to the performance. And a lot of our play with the ball was good, because it put the Scarlets under pressure and forced penalties and yellow cards, but the most important stat was the turnovers - 21 conceded to Scarlets" 13 - because they were crucial. They came as we were on the way to almost scoring tries. Chris [Cusiter] got just short of the line and we don't pick up the ball at the ruck. A forward pass from a scrum would have led to a try and two turnovers led to tries by them. We need to hold on to ball better but the work we're doing and the progress I see is great. Now we need that to transfer into wins. The Ospreys will provide a stiff test but Glasgow won the corresponding fixture last season and Townsend is hopeful that that memory of that will help this week. To play the champions away from home is the best thing we could have this week, playing a team looking to win in front of their home crowd after two defeats, with a proud record to uphold after winning the title last year. That's the challenge we want - going down there knowing that we have to play our best rugby to win. We know that, if we match the Ospreys physically, it will go a long way to winning. Having spoken to their coach, I know that the Ospreys really turned things around after that game [last season] so we know that the challenge we're facing this weekend may be much tougher than last season. "But it's good to have it in the back of the players" minds - that they have won down there before - and the reasons they won were commitment, focus and working together as a team. It will be the same this week.