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

KO 3.00pm
Principality Stadium
Sunday 21st March 2021
Live on Premier Sports 1

• Glasgow are looking for back to back away wins for the first time since the end of the 2018/19 season.
• The Warriors haven’t beaten the Dragons away from home since 30th September 2016. Glasgow did manage a win at Rodney Parade earlier this season (against the Cardiff Blues) however they won’t be returning to Newport but will instead be playing their first ever game at the Principality Stadium on Sunday.
• Lineout master, Richie Gray, is the Warrior to Watch.

Teams

Head to Head:

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

Glasgow Greetings:

Warriors’ fans have had to wait 98 days to see Peter Horne in action. It’s been a whopping 161 days since club co-captain Fraser Brown last played for the club. It’s a huge boost to have a couple of Warrior Centurions back in the lineup.

Warrior to Watch:

After an eight year gap between appearances for Glasgow, Richie Gray has taken little time to get settled back at the club where he started his professional career. He has missed the last couple of matches due to injury but prior to that he had kicked off 2021 in imperious form at the lineout. Across four games he had 24 takes on Glasgow’s throw-in and five steals on the opposition’s.

The giant lock has also taken over where little brother Jonny left off in the defensive stakes. He’s made 60 tackles so far this season and missed just 1, ranking him third in the PRO14 for tackle success. The Warriors have struggled to get their specialist locks out on the pitch in recent weeks so having Richie paired with Kiran McDonald for this match will be a real luxury and hopefully something that helps strengthen the team around the setpiece and tackle area / breakdown.

Glasgow away to Dragons in the PRO12/14 era:

• 4 wins
• 2 draws
• 2 losses
• 2 Try BPs + 1 Losing BP
• 23 points out of a possible 40 (58%)

Previous match-up:

(The highlights are grim. Please don’t watch. You’re welcome.)

Officials:

Referee: Daniel Jones (WRU, 34th Championship appearance)
AR1: Aled Evans (WRU)
AR2: Gwyn Morris (WRU)
TMO: Sean Brickell (WRU)

Mr Jones’s record last season in the PRO14:

Matches – 6 (all refs – 101)
Average penalty count – 18.8 per game (all refs – 19.1)
Home penalty percentage – 59% (all refs – 52%)
Average card count – 1.3 per game (all refs – 1.3)
Penalties per card – 14 (all refs – 15)

The last time Mr Jones took charge of a Glasgow fixture was way back at the start of the 2019/20 season when coronavirus was barely a twinkle in a pangolin’s eye. The world has changed hugely since those days but for Glasgow the instructions have to remain remarkably similar when it comes to the officials – ‘keep your discipline’; ‘keep the heid’; and ‘keep 15 men on the pitch’.

In four of their last five games the Warriors have spent 93 minutes down to 14 men and a further 16 minutes with just 13 men on the pitch. Given those stats the remarkable thing is they have gone on to win three out of those four games and played their best rugby away to Leinster while shorthanded. It would be nice to find out on Sunday what they can do when they play at full strength throughout a match!