Glasgow squeaked home in Galway thanks to a Stuart Hogg drop goal and a missed last-minute penalty while their next opponents Munster thrashed the Cheetahs 38-0 in Limerick putting them top of the conference. The recent head-to-head record is not pretty in any competition, with a win in Round 4 of last year’s league the only victory for the Warriors in six attempts.
With that in mind you would think Dave Rennie might have restored Alex Dunbar to the starting XV as his power and control in defence was missed last weekend. He’s retained the same backline again though, with the main changes in the pack as Adam Ashe and Fraser Brown are picked to start and Rob Harley shuffled to lock to get a powerful looking back row combo together.
On the bench things are much the same as last week too although Matt Fagerson and Ali Price are introduced. Nick Frisby offered a steady presence last time out so it will be interesting to see how Price approaches things with young Horne now the key exponent of “organized chaos” in the west – emphasis on the chaos.
With the team much the same, let’s hope the performance is more along the lines of what the Warrior Nation expects. Getting Hoggy involved earlier could be a good idea, and as many noticed here, allowing Adam Hastings a bit more control of his own game might push him on to better things.
Glasgow Warriors: 15. Stuart Hogg, 14. Tommy Seymour, 13. Nick Grigg, 12. Peter Horne, 11. DTH van der Merwe, 10. Adam Hastings, 9. George Horne; 1. Oli Kebble, 2. Fraser Brown, 3. Zander Fagerson, 4. Rob Harley, 5. Jonny Gray, 6. Ryan Wilson (capt), 7. Callum Gibbins (capt), 8. Adam Ashe
Replacements: 16. George Turner, 17. Jamie Bhatti, 18. D’Arcy Rae, 19. Scott Cummings, 20. Matt Fagerson, 21. Ali Price, 22. Alex Dunbar, 23. Niko Matawalu.
Players unavailable due to injury: Brian Alainu’uese (back), Bruce Flockhart (shoulder), Chris Fusaro (head), Siua Halanukanuka (foot), Sam Johnson (head / knee), Huw Jones (wrist), Lee Jones (achilles), Lelia Masaga (shoulder), Kiran McDonald (hand) and Tim Swinson (lower limb).
Munster: Mike Haley, Darren Sweetnam, Sammy Arnold, Rory Scannell, Shane Daly, JJ Hanrahan, Neil Cronin; Dave Kilcoyne, Mike Sherry, John Ryan, Jean Kleyn, Billy Holland (capt), Dave O’Callaghan, Tommy O’Donnell, Arno Botha.
Replacements: Rhys Marshall, James Cronin, Stephen Archer, Fineen Wycherley, Tadhg Beirne, Duncan Williams, Joey Carbery, Jaco Taute.
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
At Scotstoun Stadium, Friday 7 September, kick off 7.35pm – live on Premier Sports 2.