Glasgow Warriors v Cardiff Blues Saturday 12th October

Glasgow Warriors v Cardiff Blues
Scotstoun Stadium
Glasgow
Saturday 12th October
KO 19.35

Live on Premier Sports


Well amidst all the talk of crisis and typhoons in Japan, Glasgow are having a mini crisis of their own being 2 from 2, the wrong way around at the start of the season, not a situation that they are in any way used to.

Last week was the classic curates egg of a performance and we can take some hope from the way the team finally woke up with 15 minutes to go and started to play with some real intent, almost rescuing a game that had seemed long gone.

Some big problems remain though, not least of all at half back, where Nick Frisby had another woeful game and was comprehensively outplayed by his 18 year old understudy, Jamie Dobie, once he came on. Dobie's quicker and flatter passing also seemed to improve Brandon Thompson's game and allowed him to come up a bit closer to the line and start to do a bit of damage, culminating in him scoring a decent try.

It would be easy to say that DR should just chuck the kid on from the start, but there are unfortunately, lots of good reasons why that should not happen either, the main one being that he is an 18 year old kid, with halves of professional rugby under his belt. He needs to learn his trade a bit more slowly and carefully than that and of all the reasons that we are not playing well, he is not one of them. I think he will likely bench again unfortunately but hopefully get a decent chunk of the second half.

Other than that, it is hard to see, with the players he has available currently, just who he can swap in to the squad. You would imagine that the team is not going to look all that different to how it lined up last week. Hopefully by the next time we play, we will have a few more of the squad back from Japan. The Fijians will be on their way back now, as will DTH and if the Typhoon blows, then the Scotland boys won't be that far behind them.

Still, I am expecting a better performance from Glasgow this weekend and the Blues don't always travel very well. The odds point to a Glasgow win and getting our season up and running.

Cardiff looked decent enough against Edinburgh, however they are not a special team. Edinburgh have one of the better packs in the competition, even shorn of their first choice and denied them front foot ball. That should be a marker for the Glasgow pack.

For Glasgow, Frisby has been a disaster. He has not organised the forwards well and his speed of ball leaves much to be desired. If Dobie is good enough, he is old enough. It is time to give him the keys.

Harley has to go into the second row. He is not dynamic enough for a BS for the style that we play but is dynamic for a lock. If we are going to lose, I would rather be blooding youngsters such as Flockhart, Gordan and Smith than playing a club servant out of position. Adam Ashe started last season like a house on fire and, if fit, balances the back row if you want to avoid playing kids. M Fagerson alone does not guarantee front foot ball and there is a lack of carriers in the pack when Harley is at BS.

Bruce Flockhart will make his first Glasgow Warriors start in Saturday night’s clash with Cardiff Blues, lining up at blindside flanker in a team showing four changes from last weekend’s defeat to Scarlets.




The 22-year-old from Inverness made four appearances as a replacement last season – his debut campaign as a professional – before coming off the bench against the Toyota Cheetahs in Bloemfontein a fortnight ago.

Flockhart packs down in a back-row containing club co-captain Callum Gibbins and Matt Fagerson, who recently celebrated his 50th appearance for the club by signing a two-year contract extension.

Head Coach Dave Rennie has also elected to make two change to his side’s front-row, with Adam Nicol and Alex Allan coming in to the starting XV in place of Oli Kebble and D’arcy Rae respectively.

Grant Stewart continues at hooker, with Rob Harley moving into the second-row to partner Kiran McDonald.

The only alteration behind the scrum comes in midfield, as the returning Nick Grigg lines up outside Stafford McDowall in the centres.

Nick Frisby and Brandon Thomson continue as the half-backs for a third successive match, whilst an unchanged back three sees Ruaridh Jackson start at full-back with Rory Hughes and Kyle Steyn on the wings.

Scotland U20 prop George Thornton could make his competitive Glasgow Warriors debut as a replacement on Saturday night, as the summer arrival from Wasps comes into the match day 23 for the first time.

D’arcy Rae, Tim Swinson and Huw Jones all drop to the bench after starting last weekend, whilst Chris Fusaro and Johnny Matthews continue their record of being named in every match day squad so far this season.

Jamie Dobie and Glenn Bryce complete the squad, with the former having made his first competitive appearance at Scotstoun last weekend.









Speaking on his selection, Rennie said: “We’re pretty blessed with our depth in midfield. Even with a few guys away at the Rugby World Cup, we’ve still got Huw Jones, Stafford McDowall, Nick Grigg and Kyle Steyn, who’s starting on the wing.

“Nick’s a really good defender and someone who’s played a lot of games for us, and he runs great lines with ball in hand. We started him and Huw in Bloemfontein, Huw and Stafford last week and now we’re keen to give Nick and Stafford a crack together. We expect them to make an impact.

“Our intention was to start Bruce Flockhart last weekend, but he didn’t quite make it. He’s a powerful man, very dominant defensively and a guy who carries well. He spent a lot of last season injured, but we think he’s got massive potential and hope he shows that tomorrow.

“We were keen to get George [Thornton] back to Scotland, so we’re excited to give him his opportunity tomorrow. His line-out lifting is excellent and he’s made good shifts around his scrummaging. We’re looking forward to seeing how he goes.”

Glasgow Warriors team to play the Scarlets in the Guinness PRO14, Scotstoun Stadium, Saturday 12 October, kick-off 7.35pm, live on Premier Sports 1. You can follow the game in the Live Match Centre at glasgowwarriors.org. Glasgow Warriors appearances in brackets:
1. Alex Allan (92)
2. Grant Stewart (26)
3. Adam Nicol (11)
4. Rob Harley (214)
5. Kiran McDonald (18)
6. Bruce Flockhart (5)
7. Callum Gibbins (C) (36)
8. Matt Fagerson (50)
9.Nick Frisby (15)
10.Brandon Thomson (22)
11.Rory Hughes (48)
12.Stafford McDowall (14)
13.Nick Grigg (57)
14.Kyle Steyn (12)
15.Ruaridh Jackson (153)

Replacements

16. Johnny Matthews (1)
17. George Thornton (0)
18. D'arcy Rae (63)
19. Tim Swinson (129)
20. Chris Fusaro (166)
21. Jamie Dobie (2)
22. Huw Jones (22)
23. Glenn Bryce (21)

Not available due to injury: Andrew Davidson (head), Lee Jones (hamstring), Oli Kebble (head), Ali Price (foot) and Jale Vakaloloma (shoulder).

Good to see Nicol get a start and Thornton on the bench, these two could be the future for Glasgow and possibly even Scotland in the front row.

Lloyd Williams will captain Cardiff Blues as John Mulvihill makes two changes for the Guinness PRO14 clash against Glasgow Warriors on Saturday (7.35pm).

The scrum-half captains Wales’ Capital Region at Scotstoun Stadium in the absence of Nick Williams, who drops to the bench.

Will Boyde starts his first competitive game for the Blues in the place of number-eight Williams, with Kristian Dacey getting the nod ahead of Liam Belcher at hooker.

Head coach John Mulvihill was bitterly disappointed with last weekend’s error-strewn defeat to Edinburgh and has called for a reaction from his side, however he is wary of a backlash from Glasgow, who have lost their opening two fixtures.

Mulvihill said: “We let ourselves down last weekend, but we have put that to bed and had a really good week preparing for what will be a formidable test up in Glasgow.

“They have struggled a little bit in the opening weeks of the season, with all the players they are missing, but they boast a huge amount of strength in depth and will be determined to take a step in the right direction on their home patch. We are certainly under no illusions of the quality they possess.

“We just have to make sure we are accurate in everything we do and look to be a bit more clinical in attack.

“This opening period of the season is really important, and you don’t want to be playing catch up.

“Hopefully we will see a much-improved performance this weekend and in turn that will put us in the position to win the game if we take our chances.”

Cardiff Blues last triumphed over Glasgow on their home patch in 2013, and will be looking to claim a second successive victory on the road with away form a focus this season.

Cardiff Blues: M Morgan; O Lane, G Smith, W Halaholo, A Summerhill, J Evans, L Williams (capt); B Thyer, K Dacey, D Arhip, S Davies, R Thornton, J Turnbull, O Robinson, W Boyde.

Replacements: L Belcher, C Domachowski, S Andrews, S Lewis-Hughes, N Williams, L Jones, J Tovey, H Millard.

Cardiff have looked pretty average so far and I don’t expect us to get much better, at least until after the WC. Reckon that’s a win for the Weegies there.

A slight improvement from Cardiff, they should be very dangerous in attack when they have the internationals back. Glasgow are their worst enemy at times, a lot of silly play just like the game against Scarlets.

What a strange game, Glasgow started like a train and then went seriously off the rails after 20 mins.

I think we deserved the win and we certainly needed it but it was far from convincing.

Anyway, we go into the break just about in touch and should start to get some of our better players dribbling back into the squad. Not many of the squad players in truth, have really put up their hands.

A bit apprehensive about the rest of the season now.

Reflecting a bit more on the game:

Frisby actually played pretty well in the first 20 mins, his game management, passing and vision for his try were all good. All very promising accept he faded away again after that.

McDonald to me was probably the pick of our forwards, he carried well and put himself about. I can see why he was picked ahead of Swinson and certainly put his hand up for on-going selection.

Jackson had a pretty poor game, seems to have lost his pace and decision making and you do wonder from what we have seen so far that this may well be a season to far for him. He certainly does not look like the player to be filling Hoggy boots this season. Trouble is, who will? I actually hoped that he might bring Shuggy on as FB in the second half and give him a run. I suppose Grigg was never going to last the whole 80 mins, so maybe that scuppered that plan.

Nicol looked pretty solid at prop and Thornton did well on his debut, hopefully we will see a bit more of them.

Defensively we were much better this week, other than one mess up for their try we generally covered them very well and Blues are a side that score lots of tries.

The weather was pretty awful and that slowed the game down massively, despite that we did move the ball about well enough, even if the quality and speed of the passing stopped us making the space we needed to score.

In the end we needed a win and any win would do, hopefully this can build some confidence and we can start to kick on a bit from this. It is going to be a long season and we don't need to be in top form now.

It was a pretty horrible game. The first 20 minutes we managed to put them back and get two tries. After that though, it was awful. To compare to BG

Frisby had a poor game. His passing was woeful with Thomson constantly adjusting. When he was hooked, Glasgow looked better with Dobie and the quality of ball to Thomson improved dramatically. I think Frisby should be looking for another club next season, he will be our fourth choice and that is not good enough for a NSQ player. Matawalu may make him fifth choice thinking about it.

Agree on Jackson. Not a starting FB by any stretch based on what we have seen so far this season. I think Thomson may become the first choice at 15 with Bryce and Jackson backing him up. Seymour may be an option but not sure about wingers. Hughes is average at best and Nairn can't seem to displace him. Steyn is a centre covering wing. We need to find an electric wing from somewhere because the options are a far cry from a Seymour-Hogg-Maitland back three of 4 years ago.

The props have done well enough. Z Fagerson coming back will help a bit but I do worry what our scrum is going to look like when we get to the key games of the season. Rae and Nicol should be getting a decent amount of game time this season, both are good enough to start against the bottom five/six packs and should hold their own against all but the best (Edinburgh, Leinster).

Defense still feels soft and it is a concern. We looked better with Harley at lock and having a separate BS even if Flockhart was penalised a bit too much for my liking. Good game for a young player to learn from. It felt like we lack impetus and we don't rush opponents. Grigg is fast enough that we could play a rush defense to throw teams off for 10 minutes.

McDonald is showing up like he did in his first season and that is fantastic moving forward. Cummings took a step back in his second season before coming back in his third and it appears McDonald is the same. Hopefully this should mean J Gray can get himself back to where he was as he has dropped off over the past couple of seasons. Swinson may find game time limited as Harley becomes a good bench option to cover lock. Hodgson is the youngster coming through and I am not sure if this could turn into Swinson's last season at Glasgow.

No, I don't imagine Frisby will be around after the end of this season. He signed a two year contract and it will be up then. That may well be his last game for a while anyway with some players starting to come back. Niko might slot back in at SH for a while and GH won't be to far away, as he has hardly been overplayed out there (more is the pity).

Dobie, I would imagine is going to be managed carefully this season, so will continue to warm the pine for the foreseeable.

Swinson looks like he is nearing the end of the road, but with McDonald coming on a bit, we will have him, JG, Harley, Cummings and Davidson as our locks, which should give us plenty of decent cover throughout the season. There is also Hodgson and Sykes to come through and both look decent prospects. Hopefully they will both get some games at some stage.

Next game is the Drag Queens. We may have Niko and DTH back for that one and maybe the Fijian hooker. The Scottish players will probably all get a break and start to dribble back in after that heading towards the Euro games in November. Some of them did not play all that much rugby though, so should not be needing so much time off. Mental, not physical recovery is probably the name of the game.