Whether or not the teams for the weekend give any indication into the mind of Gregor Townsend is difficult to ascertain but the presence in the Glasgow side of Townsend’s latest call ups (Harley, Smith, Dunbar) suggests they’re not likely to appear in the starting XV to face Italy.
That’s possibly not great news for Adam Ashe fans either. It looks like a Ritchie/Hardie/Wilson combo will be the pencilled-in combination, although the back row is one of the areas where a strong showing here from Ashe could yet force Toony to change his mind.
However, surely one of Jamie Bhatti or Alex Allan will play some part in the Six Nations opener? You would doubt Allan Dell will be travelling to South Africa with Edinburgh this weekend, although the game time would be useful for him (Edinburgh’s team will be announced tomorrow).
For Glasgow fans though it’s quite a decent looking team including 15 who have represented their country and Niko Matawalu will be looking to repeat his hat-trick against the Ospreys last time.
Under the stewardship of Kenny Murray (Dave Rennie is back in New Zealand) there could also be first Glasgow starts for Academy prospects Robbie Smith and Thomas Gordon.
Glasgow Warriors: Ruaridh Jackson, Lee Jones, Nick Grigg, Stafford MacDowell, Nikola Matawalu, Brandon Thomson, Nick Frisby; Alex Allan, Kevin Bryce, Siua Halanukonuka, Tim Swinson, Scott Cummings, Rob Harley, Matt Smith, Adam Ashe.
Replacements: Robbie Smith, Jamie Bhatti, D’arcy Rae, David Tameilau, Thomas Gordon, Robbie Nairn, Alex Dunbar, Rory Hughes.
Ospreys: Dan Evans, Hanno Dirksen, Johnny Kotze, Cory Allen, Luke Morgan, Sam Davies, Tom Habberfield; Gareth Thomas, Scott Baldwin, Tom Botha, Lloyd Ashley, James King, Olly Cracknell, Sam Cross, Rob McCusker.
Replacements: Scott Otten, Rowan Jenkins, Gheorge Gajion, Will Griffiths, Will Jones, Matthew Aubrey, Luke Price, Tiaan Thomas-Wheeler,
Date: Fri 25th January 2019, KO: 19:35, Scotstoun Stadium
Referee: John Lacey
7 responses
I have a fantastic solution for Edinburghs Backrow shortage.
6. Crosbie
7. Marfo
8. Mata
Well,that was a terrible game!
Seeing how much Ospreys struggled in the second half showed how well Glasgow did in the first to keep the score low – minimal penalties given away in kickable areas.
McDowell looked good, otherwise a game to forget.
Force 8 wind and constant drizzle led to an attritional and mistake ridden game. Glasgow certainly lost many of the collisions in the forwards, but played a better tactical game in the conditions and kicked better.
McDowell did look good, but rarely saw the ball in any kind of attacking position in the second half. Thomson also played well at 10.
Matt Smith had a nightmare. If he wasn’t missing tackles, he was dropping the ball. Then off injured. Darcy Rae also poor at scrum-time. He was standing so far back that he either went flat out, or dropped to his knees. Nico nearly dropped his teammates in the s**t with his daft yellow card.
Not a game that I’ll remember for any length of time.
Even the handbags were a rubbish. My 85 year old mother usually bears her teeth , waves her hands and spills her tea. Tonight she barely got beyond her war cry ‘let the hams oot’ .
Thomson and Frisby are beginning to look safe.I am looking forward to seeing more of this pair.
I was going to do a full match-report, but after an hour of being at the match I was contemplating stabbing my eyes out, so here’s a brief one.
That was utterly dreadful as a spectacle. The sideways, misty rain did assist in making it awful, but there were so many knock-ons and mistakes it was unbearable. It was nice to grind out the win in such squalid conditions, Thomson judged the wind beautifully with his kicking (when he lined up the 50-yarder and took a 4-step run up, I was sure he didn’t have the length on him, but he struck it brilliantly) but I just wanted it to be over as soon as possible. He was MOTM without a doubt.
The fact that Ospreys got the ball back at 9-3 but decided to kick it dead rather than run it, shows that everyone on the field wanted out of there as much as the spectators did. Horrendous match, if you’ve recorded it with the view of watching it later, don’t bother. Stick the Playstation on, take your kids to the cinema, go for a walk, or troll people on Twitter (apart from any of us) because that’ll be a better use of your time.
The only positive thing to say was , it was a win. Agree on MOM. If we did not have the plastic pitch , this would have been called off IMO.
There was no cohesion but Swinson and the ospreys hooker Baldwin were disruptive and showed why they have been capped. The front line out peel was a crazy call. Rant over , take Iain’s advice, keep away from the rugby till next week.
Awful game but a good result for Glasgow. Thought Kevin Bryce had his best game in a very long time. Didn’t do anything spectacular but did the basics well and throwing was decent enough given the conditions. D’Arcy Rae hasn’t progressed at all this year which is disappointing, thought the influence of kebble would have helped him.