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

KO 3.00pm
Rodney Parade
Saturday 25th October 2019
Live on Premier Sports 2 *

The Dragons are looking for their first PRO14 win at Rodney Parade of 2019. Glasgow haven’t won on this ground for more than 3 years. Something has to give (unless of course there’s a 4th draw in the last 18 games between these clubs…) Admittedly these statistical anomalies are partly due to the small number of games involved (this is just the 4th actual home league fixture of the calendar year for Dragons and the Warriors have only travelled to Newport once since that last win in 2016) but they’ll sound good as little nuggets of information for the pre-match chat among supporters!

Teams

Head to Head:

Back 3 – ADV Glasgow
Centres – ADV Glasgow
Half Backs – ADV Dragons
Front Row – ADV Dragons
Second Row – ADV Dragons
Back Row – ADV Glasgow
Subs – ADV Glasgow

Glasgow Greetings:

Adam Ashe will make his first appearance in Warriors’ colours for more than 6 months. The big back row’s previous game was away to Leinster in Round 19 of last season’s PRO14. Ashey was only on the pitch for 60 minutes but managed to get through a fierce amount of work, attempting 30 tackles. Hopefully, he can bring that level of graft to proceedings at Dave Parade but with more of an accent on attack this time round!

Warriors One to Watch:

On his return to the side after RWC action it could only be one player – the magical madman, Niko Matawalu. No back made more appearances for the club last season than Niko did. He was a significant contributor to Glasgow’s overwhelming attack

• 3rd= top tryscorer with 8 (behind George Horne – 12 and Tommy Seymour – 9)
• Most metres made with 973
• 2nd= most defenders beaten with 49 (behind Adam Hastings – 72)

The Flying Fijian is also a pretty handy defender too. Surprisingly powerful for his size he can hit hard when required – and consistently too with the best tackle completion among the Warriors’ back 3 players. His instinct for interceptions also makes things awkward for sides trying to go wide.

The winger also loves playing against Welsh sides. He’s celebrated some significant milestones versus these teams – debut v Cardiff Blues; 50th game v Dragons; 100th game v Cardiff Blues. He’s also bagged more than his fair share of tries with 13 in 30 games for Glasgow against clubs from Wales – a strike rate of 1 every 2.3 matches compared to 1 every 3.3 matches against everyone else. Hopefully a there’s another cheeky try or two to come on Saturday afternoon!

Glasgow away to Dragons in the PRO12/14 era:

• 4 wins
• 2 draws
• 1 loss
• 2 Try BPs + 1 Losing BP
• 23 points out of a possible 35 (66%)

Previous match-up:

Officials:

Referee: George Clancy (IRFU, 117th Championship appearance)
AR1: Simon Rees (WRU)
AR2: Chris Busby (IRFU)
TMO: Simon McDowell (IRFU)

Mr Clancy’s record last season in the PRO14:

Matches – 12 (all refs – 147)
Average penalty count – 16.7 per game (all refs – 18.4)
Home penalty percentage – 48% (all refs – 52%)
Average card count – 0.4 per game (all refs – 0.9)
Penalties per card – 40 (all refs – 19)

This will be the 43rd time that Mr Clancy has refereed a game involving Glasgow. It’s also the 5th time in the Warriors’ last 19 matches that the Irish official has been the man in the middle. In fact he’s been such a frequent fact of life in these previews that it’s hard to know what else to say about him!

Mr Clancy was a little more whistle-happy than usual 3 weeks ago when Glasgow took on the Scarlets, awarding 23 penalties (13 for the Warriors and 10 against). There was even the unusual sight of a yellow card popping out (although right at the very end of the game when the ref’s patience had been tested to breaking point). If Glasgow can win penalties to gain an attacking foothold in the Dragons’ 22 they need to be much more efficient at converting these opportunities than they have been in the previous two rounds against Welsh opposition.

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* Other coverage:
Match re-runs on FreeSports:

• none

Highlights of all matches in Round 1:

• Premier Sports 1 – Monday 28th October at 9.00pm
• FreeSports – Monday 28th October at 5.00pm