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

KO 7.35 at Sold Out Scotstoun Stadium
Saturday 27th April
Live on Premier Sports 1 *

• This is the 26th match in the 1872 Cup series. Glasgow have won 13, Edinburgh 11 and there has been 1 draw.
• 30 of the 46 players were in the matchday squads for these sides’ previous encounter at Scotstoun in December.
• Both teams have made 2 changes in the backs from the last Glasgow v Edinburgh match. In the forwards only Jonny Gray and Matt Fagerson return for the Warriors whereas the visitors’ pack’s only change is John Barclay in for Jamie Ritchie.
• Until their remarkable comeback win at Parc Y Scarlets a few weeks ago, the game at Scotstoun in December was Edinburgh’s only away win in this season’s PRO14.
• Fraser Brown is the 37th player to be named to captain Glasgow and the first new skipper since Callum Gibbins 18 months ago.

Tale of the Tape:

BACKS
134   Tries   77
520   Appearances   352
44   1872 Cup appearances   32
26.8   Average age   26.3
6   Capped players   3

FORWARDS
895kg   Pack weight   894kg
623   Appearances   698
54   1872 Cup appearances   58
24.8   Average age   28.8
6   Capped players   7

SUBSTITUTES
566   Appearances   445
38   1872 Cup appearances   32
26.4   Average age   25.9
7   Capped players   5

Glasgow Greetings / Edinburgh Introductions:

1872 Cup debuts:

• Kyle Steyn
• Tom Gordon
• Tevita Tameilau
• Rory Hughes
• John Barclay*
• Charlie Shiel
• Jason Baggott

* 1872 Cup debut for Edinburgh – JB of course has 10 appearances in this particular fixture for Glasgow. His last Cup match was on 1 January 2012 at Firhill when the Warriors won 17 – 12.

Glasgow fans get to welcome back Ryan Wilson after a 104 day absence from Scotstoun. The skipper will be in the unusual position of coming off the bench. It will be two days short of three years since he last did that for the Warriors. On that previous occasion he replaced Leone Nakarawa for the final 2 minutes during the big Fijian’s last home appearance for the club.

Once A Warrior / Erstwhile Edinburghers:

Warriors’ numbers 133 (John Barclay – 152 appearances); 184 (Henry Pyrgos – 147 apps); 193 (Mark Bennett – 66 apps); 271 (Callum Hunter-Hill – 1 app) will all be on the opposing side on Saturday. Alex Allan (5 appearances for Edinburgh) has made the reverse journey.

The likes of James Johnstone (Glasgow EDP); Tom Gordon (Edinburgh’s Academy); Ross Ford (contracted to Glasgow); Fraser Brown (contracted to Edinburgh); and Charlie Shiel (pre-season friendly for Glasgow) have been on the alternative side of the M8 divide from their current location without ever making a competitive appearance for the other team. Basically there is a heck of a lot of crossover between Scotland’s two pro sides!

Matchday Milestones:

Two of Scottish rugby’s most in form players celebrate significant milestones with Hamish Watson playing his 100th game for Edinburgh and Sam Johnson featuring for the 50th time for Glasgow.

Tommy Seymour and Stuart McInally will both be making their 100th appearances in the PRO14 on Saturday. Tommy’s first 7 games in the league came as an Ulster player back in 2010/11. In a nice bit of synchronicity his last match for his former side (in what was then the Magners League) was against Glasgow at Firhill. His first appearance for the Warriors was 5 months later – against Ulster at Ravenhill!

Warrior to Watch / Edinburgher to Eyeball:

Gregor Townsend must thank his lucky stars that he has two hookers of the class of Stuart McInally and Fraser Brown to select for Scotland duty. In recent times it’s been Rambo who has mostly worn the number 2 shirt for the national side with Fraser coming off the bench to ensure there’s no real drop off in quality.

The two skippers will go head to head for the first time this season. Stuart was at his rampaging best in the last match at Scotstoun, notching up 11 tackles, 11 carries and a crucial try for his side. Fraser was absent that day (and at Murrayfield the week before) and his influence on how Glasgow play should not be understated. Injuries and international duty have curtailed his game time but when he has been on the pitch he’s averaged a whopping 13 carries and 15 tackles per 80 minutes.

All to play for then and it’s great to see outstanding players pushing each other to new heights.

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

• 5 wins
• 3 losses *
• 1 Try BP
• 1 Losing BP
• 22 points out of a possible 40 (55%)
• * 1 of the ‘home’ losses was played at Murrayfield
• In the Dave Rennie era Glasgow have dropped more home points in two fixtures against Edinburgh (6 pts) than in their other 18 PRO14 matches at Scotstoun (3 pts).

Most recent match-up:

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

Officials:

Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU, 34th competition game)
AR1: Lloyd Linton (SRU)
AR2: David Sutherland (SRU)
TMO: Neil Patterson (SRU)

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

Matches – 13 (all refs – 147)
Average penalty count – 21.2 per game (all refs – 19.0)
Home penalty percentage – 53% (all refs – 53%)
Average card count – 1.2 per game (all refs – 0.9)
Penalties per card – 13 (all refs – 22)

More penalties awarded than any other ref in the PRO14 last season (275 – next highest was 258).

More free kicks awarded than any other ref in the PRO14 last season (28 – next highest was 18).

More yellow cards than any other ref in the PRO14 last season (21 – next highest was 14).

Only David Wilkinson (12.8) had a lower penalties per card ratio than Mr. Adamson (13.1).

Mr. Adamson has taken charge of 26 PRO14 regular season fixtures over the past two years – that’s more than any other official. All that gametime seems to have mellowed him and this season he is only averaging 17.7 penalties per match. That’s moving him much closer to the sphere of experienced game managers like George Clancy (16.7 ppm) and Nigel Owens (13.5 ppm). It will be interesting to see how he runs things on Saturday.

(Additional ref stats from http://www.cardiffrfcfans.com)

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* Other coverage:

Match re-run on FreeSports:

• Monday 29th April at 4.00am

Highlights of all matches in Round 12:

• Premier Sports 1 – Sunday 28th April at 9.45pm
• FreeSports – Monday 29th April at 8.00pm