Welcome to the Glasgow Warriors

By The Bard
October 23 2006

Typical, isn’t it? Just when I’d got a load of doom and gloom bits ready to go in the preview, Sarries go and put on their best display at least since the home game against Biarritz this time last year.

The match was going to be labelled ‘the resistible force against the moveable object’ but that will have to go in the bin. Don’t forget, though, that the last time we put 50 points on Bath in 1997 we promptly lost at home the next week just in case we are thinking of complacency (alright it was Leicester Tigers and a last minute drop goal).

Having seen the sublime and the shambolic from Sarries in the last two games, who knows what we will get on Sunday. With the weather forecast predicting rain, unfortunately we may not see the free-flowing rugby of the last couple of weeks. Glasgow return to the European Challenge Cup after two unsuccessful seasons in the Heineken Cup with only 1 win from 12 games (a 50-35 win against Bourgoin in a fairly dead rubber). An overall record in Europe of 17 wins from 58 matches does not compare favourably with Sarries 36 wins from 51 games, although more of ours have been in the European Shield in its various guises. How do I know all of this? It’s on the ERC website.

It is interesting to note that every year in Europe we have at least won as many games as we have lost, but with the exception of 2002-3 when we lost the semi-final with the last kick of the game at Bath we never get near to the business end of European tournaments. A look through the teams in this years tournament suggests that the Men in Black ought to see this as possibly the most practical means of Heineken Cup qualification next season, provided we can get near the performance levels of last week.

The two teams met in the tournament three years ago when it was played as a straight knockout over two legs. Sarries won the first leg reasonably comfortably 37-6 with tries from the Russell Brothers, Kyran and a brace from The Mercurial One (where is he, by the way?).

A cold wet Friday night up North is not normally the scene of our better moments, so I decided to avoid the torture of following the second leg score on the internet by watching ‘The Titanic’ movie instead. How appropriate that turned out to be, because when I finally logged on we were holding on for dear life with a mere 3 point lead.

In the Magners League this season Glasgow are languishing in ninth place with two wins from 7 matches, losing 26-9 to the Hairsprays on their last outing. All of the Warriors points came from the boot of fly-half Colin Gregor who went off injured, but they have a more than adequate replacement in Dan Parks.

Glasgow have a fair sprinkling of experienced Scotland internationals, notably John Petrie, Donnie MacFadyen and captain Ally Kellock in the pack, plus Dan Parks, Andrew Henderson and Rory Lamont in the backs and should be capable of giving Sarries a good run for Nigel’s money.

Our team selection may well depend on whether we want to rest Cobus, who seems to need the trainers attention too often for my peace of mind at the moment, and Glen Jackson who might also need wrapping in cotton wool before the trip to Gloucester. Sorry to mention the F-word, but following Monday night’s A team outing it seems he now covers every position on the field, so it must be very likely he will see some action at some stage coming off the bench.

My prediction- Sarries by 15.