Glasgow Warriors v Cardiff Blues, 10 April

                  
Glasgow Warriors v Cardiff Blues
Friday 10 April
KO: 19:35
Scotstoun Stadium

Live on BBC Alba / BBC Wales

Referee: George Clancy (IRFU, 69th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Lloyd Linton, Mike Adamson (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: John Montgomery (SRU)
TMO: Jim Yuille (SRU)

Glasgow Warriors
Peter Murchie, Tommy Seymour, Richie Vernon, Peter Horne, DTH van der Merwe, Finn Russell, Henry Pyrgos, Jerry Yanuyanutawa, Dougie Hall, Mike Cusack, Tim Swinson, Al Kellock (captain), Rob Harley, Chris Fusaro, Adam Ashe

Replacements: Pat MacArthur, Gordon Reid, Jon Welsh, Leone Nakarawa, Josh Strauss, Ali Price, Duncan Weir, Lee Jones.

Cardiff Blues
Gareth Anscombe; Alex Cuthbert, Tom Isaacs, Garyn Smith, Dan Fish; Gareth Davies, Tavis Knoyle; Sam Hobbs, Kristian Dacey, Adam Jones, Jarrad Hoeata, Lou Reed, Macauley Cook, Sam Warburton (c), Josh Navidi

Replacements: Matthew Rees, Thomas Davies, Taufa'ao Filise, Josh Turnbull, Ellis Jenkins, Lewis Jones, Simon Humberstone, Richard Smith.

Looks like it is going to be Big Al and Dougie's swansong, at least for a half!

They both deserve a good sendoff. A 5 point bonus point win will do nicely!

Would you Adam and Eve it? Cap'n Kellock gets Clownshoes for his retirement benefit.
I would dearly love to be there but theatre tickets and a hotel in London with MrsPip say otherwise. May I just rquest that anyone attending gives it a wee bit extra laldy for me?

Can't believe this is Big Al's swansong. I'm welling up.

Surely, the Weeg will get a semi at home (haven't we all?)

Joking aside this game is expected to be a sell out and the expectations have got to be a bp win - if Glasgow are to get a home semi they could do with it.

Shows how far the club as come eh?

.... and the level of expectations too. I (and most others) would be surprised if it is a BP win.
By their own standards, Cardiff are guff this year and Sam Warburton doesn't seem to be playing enough to make the impact you would expect of him

A rather moribund and silent post here. Methinks the faithful are stunned into silence at the thought of life after the Captain.
Little Jonny is the future. As a player he has probably surpassed the master but as a leader of men?
Well, the Leinster match showed that when their backs were to the wall there was no shortage of players wanting the ball and brave enough to make hard yards and difficult choices. Glasgow will survive. They will hold their heads high. Oh aye, we will survive. As long as we know how to ruck inspect I know we will survive.

jimbopip wrote:A rather moribund and silent post here. Methinks the faithful are stunned into silence at the thought of life after the Captain.
Little Jonny is the future. As a player he has probably surpassed the master but as a leader of men?
Well, the Leinster match showed that when their backs were to the wall there was no shortage of players wanting the ball and brave enough to make hard yards and difficult choices. Glasgow will survive. They will hold their heads high. Oh aye, we will survive. As long as we know how to ruck inspect I know we will survive.

I always love hearing the soap dodgers celebrating something the rest of us take as a given!

Glasgow team :

Yanuyanutawa, Hall, Cusack; Swinson, Kellock; Harley, Fusaro, Ashe; Pyrgos, Russell; van der Merwe, Horne, Vernon, Seymour, Murchie.

Blues team

15 Gareth Anscombe, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Tom Isaacs, 12 Garyn Smith, 11 Dan Fish, 10 Gareth Davies, 9 Gareth Davies;

1 Sam Hobbs, 2 Kristian Dacey 3 Adam Jones, 4 Jarrad Hoeata, 5 Lou Reed, 6 Macauley Cook, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 8 Josh Navidi

Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Thomas Davies, 18 Taufa’ao Filise, 19 Josh Turnbull, 20 Ellis Jenkins, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Simon Humberstone, 23 Richard Smith

.................................................

We have been decimated by injuries in the backs, I'll be surprised if this isn't a very one sided match.

They also appear to have Gareth Davies playing 9 and 10, I assume Lloyd Williams is at 9...

Glasgow replacements :

McArthur, Reid, Welsh, Nakawara, Strauss, Price, Weir, Jones.

demosthenes wrote:Glasgow team :

Yanuyanutawa, Hall, Cusack; Swinson, Kellock; Harley, Fusaro, Ashe; Pyrgos, Russell; van der Merwe, Horne, Vernon, Seymour, Murchie.

Good team, nicely balanced. You'd expect Glasgow to go hunting for a 5 pointer here, and with DTH and Seymour out wide, the best finishers at the club, that could well be on the cards.

I'd also really like to hear how Cusack gets on. I'd dearly love the old Mike Cusack to form part of the Scotland World Cup Squad, just to pile the pressure on the Japan and USA front rows.

demosthenes wrote:Glasgow replacements :

McArthur, Reid, Welsh, Nakawara, Strauss, Price, Weir, Jones.

Good to see Weir back, and Naka/Strauss are two impressive impact subs should you need it.

Yes a very strong Bench for Glasgow, useful for when the two old boys run out of puff and it will hopefully get a couple of the returnees back up to match fitness for the rest of the season. Just in time by the looks of things.

It looks as if Niko will be the big crowd pleaser down at Melrose on Saturday, presumably with Eddie and a few more of the EDP's.

wales606 wrote:Blues team

15 Gareth Anscombe, 14 Alex Cuthbert, 13 Tom Isaacs, 12 Garyn Smith, 11 Dan Fish, 10 Gareth Davies, 9 Gareth Davies;

1 Sam Hobbs, 2 Kristian Dacey 3 Adam Jones, 4 Jarrad Hoeata, 5 Lou Reed, 6 Macauley Cook, 7 Sam Warburton (c), 8 Josh Navidi

Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Thomas Davies, 18 Taufa’ao Filise, 19 Josh Turnbull, 20 Ellis Jenkins, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Simon Humberstone, 23 Richard Smith

.................................................

We have been decimated by injuries in the backs, I'll be surprised if this isn't a very one sided match.

They also appear to have Gareth Davies playing 9 and 10, I assume Lloyd Williams is at 9...

Tackle bag at 9.

Interesting Matawalu is uninjured, yet he doesn't feature in the 23.

I'd have thought he'd be on the bench to maybe cover the wing? After all, a BP is really needed to maintain the lead.

Nematode wrote:Interesting Matawalu is uninjured, yet he doesn't feature in the 23.

I'd have thought he'd be on the bench to maybe cover the wing? After all, a BP is really needed to maintain the lead.

He will be playing sevens in Melrose. Team should still be strong enough to win comfortably.

Makes my p.iss boil that lou reed and matthew rees are still involved. Turncoat little pricks.

gcBlues wrote:Makes my p.iss boil that lou reed and matthew rees are still involved. Turncoat little pricks.

Brilliant! A Welsh Schizoid!!

Looks a decent Blues side and Glasgow short of a good few first choices with injury etc. Fancy it will be a tough game ,not sure if I subscibe to a " comfortable" win let alone talk of bonus points. Will be there and fingers crossed we get the result and can give big Al the send off he deserves.

gcBlues wrote:Makes my p.iss boil that lou reed and matthew rees are still involved. Turncoat little pricks.

Did i miss something? They are very good players and are there purely on merit.

Blues have been a bit of a bogey side for us what with the fiasco in the HC a couple of seasons ago, how we did not qualify that year still mystifies me and we are not likely to ever get a better chance.

Glasgow just need to keep their eyes on the prize. A win is what matters and anything else is a bonus. Blues have not got anything but pride to play for, but a wounded animal is always dangerous. If Glasgow get a lead though and with the strength of the bench to come on, I wonder if they will be able to maintain their desire to the end.

I will be happy with 4 points and delighted with 5.

luvtotup wrote:Looks a decent Blues side .

Not really, the backs are pretty much a joke with most of our centres and fullbacks injured.

Even our best team wouldn't cause you much bother at the moment i'm afraid. There is a reason we are the worst team in the league bar the italians.

Having said that, I think our best 12 performance of the season came last week with Tavis Knoyle filling-in in the centres

I think Glasgow's front 5 could be targeted - Jerry seems to blow hot and cold, Hall has one eye on retirement, Coo isn't fit, Swinson is solid enough and Kellock is, well, Kellock!

Certainly not the strongest front 5 Glasgow could put out.

RDW_Scotland wrote:I think Glasgow's front 5 could be targeted - Jerry seems to blow hot and cold, Hall has one eye on retirement, Coo isn't fit, Swinson is solid enough and Kellock is, well, Kellock!

Certainly not the strongest front 5 Glasgow could put out.

True, but Glasgow could easily address those issues using the bench if they needed to, replacing the front row, and taking off Kellock to Naka and getting Strauss on the pitch.

Grown men will be weeping into their Tennants SuperStrengh when Kellock comes off.

RDW_Scotland wrote: Coo isn't fit

He managed 70 mins against Leinster, no mean feat even when he was fitter. 40-50 mins should do him nicely on Friday night. The good thing is the bench, there will be no drop off in quality when the subs come on, if anything it should make things stronger.

You should be able to give Cusack the full 80 minutes here and still win. If would be great for his confidence to see off the entire 80 minutes, albeit by the end of the game he'll probably look like I did this morning walking up from Stockbridge to Charlotte Square!

RDW_Scotland wrote:I think Glasgow's front 5 could be targeted - Jerry seems to blow hot and cold, Hall has one eye on retirement, Coo isn't fit, Swinson is solid enough and Kellock is, well, Kellock!

Certainly not the strongest front 5 Glasgow could put out.

It's funny you say that as i really think this is the best scrummaging front row Glasgow can put out (unless they shift Welsh back to LH but this doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon).

RDW_Scotland wrote:I think Glasgow's front 5 could be targeted - Jerry seems to blow hot and cold, Hall has one eye on retirement, Coo isn't fit, Swinson is solid enough and Kellock is, well, Kellock!

Certainly not the strongest front 5 Glasgow could put out.

RDW, do you ever watch Glasgow play

Jerry is beginning to be the player Toonie thought he would : against the Ladyboys he took one ball on the crash and while driving the tackler back off-loaded out the back of his hand a pass Niko would have been proud of.
Dougie Hall will be wanting to make a big statement.
The Coo is fit enough and wants to play in the World Cup.
Swinson is a really good lock at Pro 12 level.
Big Al will eclipse even the Messiah tonight.
Believe.

If you're unable to play the full 80 in a specialist position, then you shouldn't be in the 23 tbh.

Cusack did manage ~70 minutes vs Leinster, however, so I think he'll be OK.

Nematode wrote:If you're unable to play the full 80 in a specialist position, then you shouldn't be in the 23 tbh.

Cusack did manage ~70 minutes vs Leinster, however, so I think he'll be OK.

You worm......

Nematode wrote:If you're unable to play the full 80 in a specialist position, then you shouldn't be in the 23 tbh.

Cusack did manage ~70 minutes vs Leinster, however, so I think he'll be OK.

Most front row players these days don't manage a full 80 mins on a regular basis. It is a problem running around for that length of time if you are 20 stone! As substitutions are the norm, if you do not do it and the other side do, you will then get a miss match of a tired guy against a fresh one, which makes it a self fulfilling prophecy. The only solution to that is to not allow subs, even the injury rules would get abused and would never wash anyway in todays risk averse culture.

Big Mike actually made a pretty good stab at his 70 mins last week. His fitness is definitely improving.

I was just changing trains at Haymarket on my way to Glasgow (by the way, what are the odds that the managing partner is a Warriors supporter, happy for me to leave 30 minutes early!), and there was a guy on the opposite platform who was the absolute spitting image of my buddy Jimbo.

He was filming the trains on a telephoto lense, then noting the numbers down excitedly in a little notebook. The resemblance was uncanny, until I realised the guy wasn't talking endlessly about French philosophy. Destroyed the illusion.

Trainspotting??
Talking endlessly???
Quoting clever blokes???
As Oscar Wilde said, "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."
OR
As Ian Drury put it, "There ain't half been some clever bastards"

I see the Messiah is injured. Luckily we have Hornee and Richie V who are also World Class and will prove it come September.

I've got money on Russell or Horne to score two tries tonight - good odds!

Come over to the dark side RDW. You'll like it.

Is there a dress code? Not got any Fila track suits...

What a run by the mighty coo!

And a beast of a scrum!

The Mighty Coo is mighty!

Horne kicking and not Russell? Only just crept around the inside of the post...

Maybe carrying a niggle

Scrappy from Glasgow - they're a bit too loose and going wide before they earn it.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Maybe carrying a niggle

Maybe. I know from experience that it's unwise kick with a leg injury. I had a niggle at school but was also kicker and ended up being off rugby for a good few months to let my ligaments recuperate. All because I didn't take my injury seriously enough. How nice it would've been to have medics and phyios...

RDW_Scotland wrote:Is there a dress code? Not got any Fila track suits...

Mortar board and gown old man. Oh and a familiarity with the works of Jacques Tati, the greatest of all French thinkers.

Glasgow looking a bit under powered compared to the blues - every ruck is a complete arm wrestle

Remember the days when refs used to ping players when they tackled around the neck / head?

They're also getting smashed back in a lot of tackles.

Bring on Strauss!