Need to Know: Glasgow Warriors v Edinburgh, PRO14 Match Preview 2018/19

KO 3.00 at Sold Out Scotstoun Stadium
Saturday 29th December
Live on Premier Sports 1 *

• Similar to last week the head heads run Glasgow’s way in the backs but favour Edinburgh in the forwards.
• The battle at number 8 provides the Warrior to Watch (Matt Fagerson) and the Edinburgher to Eyeball (Viliame Mata).
• This is the 25th match in the 1872 Cup series. Glasgow have won 13 matches, Edinburgh 10 and there has been 1 draw.
• 41 of the 46 players return from the first leg at Murrayfield.

Tale of the Tape:

BACKS
159   Tries   56
694   Appearances   266
56   1872 Cup appearances   26
27.6   Average age   25.0
7   Capped players   3

FORWARDS
896kg   Pack weight   897kg
513   Appearances   691
38   1872 Cup appearances   55
26.0   Average age   27.2
4   Capped players   7

SUBSTITUTES
607   Appearances   237
52   1872 Cup appearances   18
28.5   Average age   26.0
7   Capped players   3

Glasgow Greetings / Edinburgh Introductions:

All 5 of this week’s new faces in the respective 23s (Alex Dunbar, Ryan Wilson and Sam Johnson for Glasgow; Jamie Ritchie and Simon Berghan for Edinburgh) have previous experience of this fixture so no 1872 Cup debuts this time round.

Once A Warrior / Erstwhile Edinburghers:

For the second week running Henry Pyrgos, Callum Hunter-Hill and Kevin Bryce are the only men (out of a total of 12) with experience of playing for both clubs who will feature in the game.

Matchday Milestones:

As he continues to hoover up all available appearance records for Glasgow, Robert Harley will play for the 16th time in the 1872 Cup – more than any other Warrior (and just 2 short of Ross Ford’s all-time record for both clubs).

Elsewhere Peter Horne will make his 100th start for Glasgow while Tommy Seymour will be playing in his 125th match for the club. On the other side Blair Kinghorn makes his 75th appearance for Edinburgh (and he doesn’t even turn 22 until the middle of January!) and Nathan Fowles will turn out in the PRO14 for the 50th time.

Warrior to Watch / Edinburgher to Eyeball:

At the back of the scrum Matt Fagerson and Viliame Mata will do battle once again. In a stuffy battle last week this pair provided most of the go forward ball for their respective packs – although Glasgow would have been relatively content to have restricted Big Bill to 18 carries for 37 metres given some of the stellar numbers he has put up this season.

Young Matt was the only Warriors’ forward to make a clean break and provided 2 of just 3 defenders beaten the visitors’ pack managed at Murrayfield. With Fagerson Junior’s 23 carries for 56 metres and 14 tackles, none missed (the exact same defensive stats as Mata) there’s an argument to be made for the two number 8s being the hardest-working men on the pitch last Saturday. Expect more of the same at Scotstoun.

Glasgow at home to Edinburgh in the PRO12/14 era:

• 5 wins
• 2 losses *
• 1 Try BP
• 1 Losing BP
• 22 points out of a possible 35 (63%)
• * 1 of the ‘home’ losses was played at Murrayfield

Last season’s match-up:

For some stats from last season’s fixture check out On Top Of The Moon’s page in the matchday programme!

Last week’s game:

Officials:

Referee: George Clancy (IRFU, 109th competition game)
AR1: Stuart Gaffikin (IRFU)
AR2: David Sutherland (SRU)
TMO: Neil Patterson (SRU)

Mr. Clancy’s regular season record for 2017/18 in the PRO14:

Matches – 12 (all refs – 147)
Average penalty count – 17.1 per game (all refs – 19.0)
Home penalty percentage – 59% (all refs – 53%)
Average card count – 0.4 per game (all refs – 0.9)
Penalties per card – 41 (all refs – 22)

In complete contrast to young up and comer Mr. Adamson last week this time round it’s league veteran Mr. Clancy. The Irish official’s tendencies are also at the opposite end of the scale from his Scottish colleague. Mr. Clancy had the lowest rate of sin binnings in the entire league last season. His 41 penalties per card is almost twice the league average and much greater even than the next highest ref (Ian Davies with 33).

Running in Glasgow’s favour is that 59% of Mr. Clancy’s penalties go to the home side – the highest ratio among PRO14 referees. He’s also been a regular for Warriors’ matches – 17 in the previous 5 seasons so the analysts should have plenty to go on! The expectation would be for more of an opportunity for a flowing game – but that’s heavily dependent on how positive the intent is from both teams…

---

* Other coverage:

Match re-run on FreeSports:

• Wednesday 2nd January at 12.00pm

Highlights of all matches in Round 12:

• Premier Sports 1 – Monday 31st December at 9.00pm
• FreeSports – Monday 31st December at 6.00pm