Need to Know: Glasgow Warriors v Cardiff Blues, PRO14 match preview 2019/20

KO 7.35 at Scotstoun Stadium
Saturday 12th October 2019
Live on Premier Sports 1*

• Head to heads favour Cardiff Blues who are impacted less by the RWC.
• George Thornton will become Warrior number 307 if called upon from the bench.
• Centre Stafford McDowall is the Warrior to Watch.
• The Warriors have won 8 out of 8 at home in the league against Cardiff Blues during the PRO12/14 era.

Teams

Head to Head:

Back 3 – ADV Cardiff Blues
Centres – EVEN
Half Backs – ADV Cardiff Blues
Front Row – ADV Cardiff Blues
Second Row – ADV Glasgow
Back Row – ADV Glasgow
Subs – EVEN

Glasgow Greetings:

It could be debut time for George Thornton who joined up from Wasps over the summer. He’ll have found plenty of familiar faces in the Glasgow squad from his time with Scotland U20s. Just from Friday night’s team Stafford McDowall, Adam Nicol, Bruce Flockhart and Matt Fagerson were all alongside big George in the 2017 group that finished 5th at the World Rugby U20 Championship in Georgia.

Warrior to Watch:

Skipper for that record-breaking generation of Scotland U20s mentioned above was Stafford McDowall. The giant centre made his breakthrough into the Glasgow team last season after an injury to Sam Johnson. Looking as if he was to the manor born, Stafford settled in quickly and formed a successful partnership with Nick Grigg that will be reunited for this game.

There will be an all-round range of skills from 12. Stafford isn’t the most likely to kick the ball but it’s certainly something that he has more of in his locker than some of the Warriors’ midfielders. It’s his carrying that will lead the way though. He was given a heavy workload when on the pitch last season but it’s worth noting he’s more than just a battering ram. A lovely balanced runner he’s excellent at using his size to get his hands through contact and away to support runners. Expect a lot of Glasgow’s attack to flow through the youngster on Friday night.

Glasgow at home to Cardiff Blues in the PRO12/14 era:

• 8 wins
• 0 losses
• 6 Try BPs
• 38 points out of a possible 40 (95%)

Previous match-up:

Officials:

Referee: Sean Gallagher (IRFU, 16th Championship game)
AR1: Ben Blain (SRU)
AR1: Johnny Erskine (IRFU)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (IRFU)

Mr Gallagher’s regular season record for 2018/19 in the PRO14:

Matches – 5 (all refs – 147)
Average penalty count – 22.4 per game (all refs – 18.4)
Home penalty percentage – 50% (all refs – 52%)
Average card count – 1.4 per game (all refs – 0.9)
Penalties per card – 16 (all refs – 19)

After the laissez faire George Clancy last week a complete contrast with one of the league’s newer generation of refs in Mr Gallagher. The Irish whistler had the highest average penalty count of any of the regular PRO14 officials last season. There were only a couple who were quicker to go to their cards as well. All in all Glasgow will be well advised to tread carefully, especially in the early exchanges as they try to get on the wavelength of a referee who has never taken charge of a Warriors’ match before.

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* Other coverage:

Match re-runs on FreeSports:

• none

Highlights of all matches in Round 3:

• Premier Sports 1 – Monday 14th October at 12.00pm
• FreeSports – Monday 14th October at 11.00am and 11.30pm