There are less than 3 weeks until Glasgow Warriors opening European fixture of the season and the club have named their 41-man squad to tackle Exeter Chiefs, Leinster and Montpellier in Pool 3. Here’s a quick summary of who’s in and who’s out compared to the initial selection in 2016/17.
Note – Big Brian was not in the original squad last season but was added in place of Leonardo Sarto ahead of rounds 3 and 4 against Racing 92.
Squad composition – 2017/18 v 2016/17
3 v 3 – LH prop
4 v 4 – Hooker
4 v 3 – TH prop
5 v 4 – Locks
1 v 1 – BS flanker
3 v 4 – OS flanker
3 v 4 – Number 8
4 v 4 – Scrum half
2 v 1 – Stand off
5 v 5 – Centre
5 v 5 – Wing
2 v 2 – Full back
41 v 40 – Total
There are 45 players in Glasgow’s main squad this season. Matt Fagerson and Adam Nicol from the Scottish Rugby Academy have been included in the European selection. That leaves 6 full-time pros who have missed out as things stand:
Lock – Kiran McDonald
Back row – Samuela Vunisa (injured)
Back row – Lewis Wynne
Stand off – Adam Hastings (injured)
Centre – Richie Vernon (injured)
Centre – Patrick Kelly (injured)
The rules allow for 3 changes to the squad during the group stage (and a further 3 during the knockouts) so the door isn’t closed for these players. At least 1 of these replacements must be a front row though. If Ryan Grant does pick up a short-term contract with the Warriors there is still a chance he could end up being added to the Champions Cup squad.
As things stood prior to Glasgow’s most recent game (the victory over Munster) 7 of those selected for Europe were listed as injured and 2 more hadn’t actually joined up with the club yet. Dave Rennie has sounded positive about the availability in the next couple of weeks of Fraser Brown, Jonny Gray and Tommy Seymour. Stuart Hogg could be touch and go and may not have any Pro 14 action to warm up with. It seems less likely that Alex Dunbar and Oli Kebble will make it for the first 2 rounds of Champions Cup fixtures.
Siosiua Halanukonuka and Huw Jones have, respectively, Mitre 10 Cup (with Tasman) and Currie Cup (with Western Province) duties to attend to and won’t be finished with their current clubs until mid to late October. Neither will feature against Exeter or Leinster but both should be available for the double header against Montpellier in December.
Here is the complete squad by position:
Props
- Alex Allan
- Jamie Bhatti
- Zander Fagerson
- Siosiua Halanukonuka
- Oli Kebble
- Adam Nicol (SRA)
- D’arcy Rae
Hookers
- Fraser Brown
- Pat MacArthur
- James Malcolm
- George Turner
Locks
- Brian Alainu’uese
- Scott Cummings
- Jonny Gray
- Greg Peterson
- Tim Swinson
Back rows
- Adam Ashe
- Matt Fagerson (SRA)
- Chris Fusaro
- Callum Gibbins
- Robert Harley
- Matt Smith
- Ryan Wilson
Scrum halves
- George Horne
- Niko Matawalu
- Ali Price
- Henry Pyrgos
Stand offs
- Finn Russell
- Brandon Thomson
Centres
- Alex Dunbar
- Nick Grigg
- Peter Horne
- Sam Johnson
- Huw Jones
Wings
- Rory Hughes
- Lee Jones
- Lelia Masaga
- Leonardo Sarto
- Tommy Seymour
Full backs
- Stuart Hogg
- Ruaridh Jackson
On Top Of The Moon 