Need to Know: Ulster v Glasgow Warriors, PRO14 match preview 2020/21

KO 8.15
Kingspan Stadium
Monday 9th November 2020
Live on Premier Sports 1

• Glasgow travel to play at the Kingspan for the first time since 21st April 2018. This has not been a happy hunting ground for the club…
• Rob Harley has more previous appearances for the Warriors than the 8 players on the Glasgow bench combined.
• Both sides have a number of players missing. Just 15 of the 46 involved last time these clubs met (in the 2018/19 PRO14 semi-final) will feature on Monday night – 9 for Ulster and 6 for Glasgow.
• Epitomising the spirit and character of the club’s credo “Whatever It Takes”, Ryan Wilson is the Warrior to Watch.

Teams

Head to Head:

Back 3 – ADV Ulster
Centres – EVEN
Half Backs – ADV Ulster
Front Row – ADV Ulster
Second Row – EVEN
Back Row – ADV Ulster
Subs – ADV Ulster

Glasgow Greetings:

There’s a lot going on, so here we go:

Club debut – Lewis Bean could become Warrior number 317, after joining up on loan from Northampton.

First start – Enrique Pieretto and Robbie Fergusson. Robbie’s previous 2 appearances for the club came off the bench with the most recent being 1,864 days (more than 5 years) ago. That’s not the longest gap between games for the Warriors though – as explored here.

First appearance of the season – Glenn Bryce, Johnny Matthews and Kiran McDonald will all get their first game time of the campaign.

Warrior to Watch:

Ryan Wilson has epitomised the Warrior spirit during his decade long stint with the club. There might be few who sound less Scottish than the geezerish ex-Moseley man – but there are even fewer who could be prouder about representing Glasgow and Scotland.

His unstinting efforts to contribute to the cause have brought about a run of 21 consecutive starts, the most since Bernie Stortoni back in 2009 (another player who made Glasgow his home and gave everything for the club). Ryan hasn’t missed a game for the Warriors since returning from the Rugby World Cup more than a year ago.

In the current campaign he’s had to be the glue holding the back row together, making significant contributions in both attack and defence as well as providing a very effective third lineout option. Add in the fact that he is the only player to start every game this season for Glasgow and is skippering the club for the third match in a row, returning even after being forced off by a big knock last time out, and the effort of a true Warrior is clear to see.

Glasgow away to Ulster in the PRO12/14 era:

• 1 win
• 6 losses
• 1 losing bonus point
• 5 points out of a possible 35 (14%)
• While it may have been the venue for the greatest day in the club’s history – the PRO12 Grand Final win in 2015 – this is the worst venue for points collected by the Warriors in the league since it became the PRO12.

Previous match-up at the the Kingspan Stadium:

Officials:

Referee: Nigel Owens (IRFU, 186th Championship appearance)
AR1: Frank Murphy (IRFU)
AR2: Chris Busby (IRFU)
TMO: Joy Neville (IRFU)

Mr Owens’ regular season record for 2019/20 in the PRO14:

Matches – 4 (all refs – 101)
Average penalty count – 17.8 per game (all refs – 19.1)
Home penalty percentage – 29% (all refs – 48%)
Average card count – 0.8 per game (all refs – 1.3)
Penalties per card – 24 (all refs – 15)

This will be the 41st time that Mr Owens has refereed a Warriors’ game. The first completed match that the Welsh whistler took charge of was a Welsh-Scottish League fixture on the 11th of April 2001 when Glasgow took on Pontypridd at Sardis Road.

That game is so long ago that Jamie Dobie, the Warriors’ starting scrum half on Monday night, wasn’t even born…In the 9 shirt for that game in Pontypridd was Andy Nicol – a player who has been retired for more than 17 years.