Need to Know: Edinburgh v Glasgow Warriors Part 4, PRO14 match preview 2019/20

KO 7.35 at BT Murrayfield
Friday 28th August 2020
Live on Premier Sports 1

• There is only one player in the Glasgow lineup (Enrique Pierreto) who is not Scottish qualified. Edinburgh have named five NSQ but that includes Jaco van der Walt and Pierre Schoeman who will both be eligible for Scotland within the next eleven months.
• 29 of the 46 players on show have progressed through the Scotland under 20s setup, including 7 from the group who achieved the age grade side’s best ever finish of 5th at the World Rugby U20 Championships in 2017.
• This will be the first time Edinburgh and Glasgow have played a competitive match outwith the 1872 Cup series since 22nd December 2006.

Tale of the Tape:

BACKS
93   Tries   113
332   Appearances   380
24.6   Average age   26.9
2   Capped players   5

FORWARDS
890kg   Pack weight   905kg
414   Appearances   605
27.4   Average age   27.0
5   Capped players   6

SUBSTITUTES
461   Appearances   723
26.2   Average age   27.5
3   Capped players   6

Glasgow Greetings / Edinburgh Introductions:

There are no less then five club debutants among the substitutes for the two teams. Marshall Sykes, Roan Frostwick and Matt Gordon are in line for their first appearances for Edinburgh. Glasgow’s replacement props Charlie Capps and Enrique Pierreto could be become Warrior numbers 312 and 313 when they join the fray at Murrayfield.

Matchday Milestones:

Fraser Brown will be the 48th player to rack up 100 appearances for Glasgow in the professional era and will join the ranks of the Warrior Centurions. The man who was once on Edinburgh’s books has been a powerful presence since making his Glasgow debut back in February 2013 against Zebre (as a replacement for no less than 2-time Grand Slam of Darts winner Gerwyn Price) and leads from the front with his outstanding work rate.

James Johnstone will mark his 50th game for Edinburgh. Jinky actually first played for the club as far back as September 2015 but it’s only really under Richard Cockerill that he has blossomed into an all-round threat in attack and defence at outside centre.

Warrior to Watch / Edinburgher to Eyeball:

With nothing tangible on the line for either side there’s a chance to look at one of the more esoteric issues still at hand. There is a final chance this season for one of the most remarkable scoring streaks in Scottish rugby to continue. Despite only boasting a grand total of 11 tries in 231 career matches for Glasgow, Rob Harley has the opportunity to become the first player in the club’s history to score in ten consecutive seasons.

Rob has scored a solitary try in every campaign he has played for the Warriors bar 2013/14 and 2017/18 when he went a bit mad and scored two in each. It’s coming down to the wire as to whether the Ginger Ninja will secure his annual trip across the whitewash but he does have a habit of leaving it late. He waited until the final fixture of the 2014/15 season to bag his try (a fairly memorable effort against Munster); it was the three games from the end of the season in 2016/17; and the second last match (a playoff semi-final against Ulster) in 2018/19.

Glasgow away to Edinburgh during the PRO12/14 era:

• 3 wins
• 1 draw
• 6 losses
• 1 losing bonus point
• 15 points out of a possible 50 (30%)

Previous match-up:

Officials:

Referee: Ben Blain (SRU, 6th championship appearance)
AR1: Sam Grove-White (SRU)
AR2: Graeme Ormiston (SRU)
TMO: Neil Paterson (SRU)

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

Matches – 2 (all refs – 147)
Average penalty count – 18.5 per game (all refs – 19.0)
Home penalty percentage – 35% (all refs – 53%)
Average card count – 0.5 per game (all refs – 0.9)
Penalties per card – 37 (all refs – 22)

Mr Blain had a busy night on his last outing in the PRO14 – the Glasgow v Edinburgh game at Scotstoun in December. He sin binned Ruaridh Jackson, Viliame Mata, Stuart McInally and George Turner in the space of 28 minutes before topping things off with a fifth yellow card, this time for Nic Groom, five minutes from time.

With 25 penalties in that match it will be interesting to see how high the crime count is this time round under the new law applications at the breakdown which have seen referees in general much quicker on the whistle to penalise players.