Need to Know: Glasgow Warriors v Edinburgh part 2, PRO14 Rainbow Cup Match Preview 2020/21

KO 8.15 at Scotstoun Stadium
Friday 7th May 2021
Live on Premier Sports 1

• This is the 32nd match in the 1872 Cup series. Glasgow have won 16, Edinburgh 14 and there has been 1 draw (the Warriors also won a non-1872 Cup clash at Murrayfield in August 2020).
• There are 17 changes from the 30 players who started the last time these two sides met at Scotstoun in January.
• There will be 29 capped internationals on show on Friday night – and the majority of the uncapped players will have ambitions to make Scotland’s touring squad this summer.

Tale of the Tape:

BACKS
50   Tries   79
269   Appearances   316
25.9   Average age   27.2
3   Capped players   5

FORWARDS
902kg   Pack weight   891kg
818   Appearances   642
28.4   Average age   28.1
7   Capped players   5

SUBSTITUTES
546   Appearances   274
27.9   Average age   26.3
6   Capped players   3

Glasgow Greetings / Edinburgh Introductions:

Warriors’ players Cole Forbes and Fotu Lokotui are getting their first taste of 1872 Cup action on Friday night. Tom Lambert could join them from the bench.

The visitors’ replacements Boan Venter, Lee-Roy Atalifo, Mesu Kunavula and Charlie Savala have also never played in a Glasgow v Edinburgh match before.

Scotland players Zander Fagerson, Scott Cummings, Ali Price and George Turner haven’t played at Scotstoun since the previous game against Edinburgh in January. That pales into insignificance compared to the break for Kyle Steyn who hasn’t been able to feature in a home match since Valentine’s Day 2020.

Once A Warrior / Erstwhile Edinburghers:

Warrior numbers 184 (Henry Pyrgos – 147 appearances) and 193 (Mark Bennett – 66 apps) will be on the opposing side on Friday. George Turner used to play for the bad guys (14 games for Edinburgh).

Matchday Milestones:

Zander Fagerson will play his 100^th game for Glasgow on Friday night. At 25 years and 109 days he will be the youngest Warriors’ prop to achieve this feat. He will be 4½ years younger than the average age of the other props who have played 100 games for the club.

Former Warrior, Henry Pyrgos, will play his 50th game for Edinburgh having moved to the capital at the start of the 2018/19 season. Henry is rapidly closing in a combined 200 matches played for the two Scottish pro teams.

Warrior to Watch / Edinburgher to Eyeball:

Chris Harris has been a fixture for Scotland at outside centre over the last two years. With the Gloucester man off to South Africa this summer and Huw Jones recovering from surgery on his foot there is a possible route back to the national side’s number 13 shirt for the two outside centres on show at Scotstoun.

Their stats in this season’s PRO14 are probably the opposite way round from what might have been expected. Nick Grigg has shown the attacking mojo, scoring 4 tries and assisting another 3 as well as winning the head to head for clean breaks and metres gained. Mark Bennett has the edge in defence with the superior tackle completion percentage and 4 turnovers won. Neither is a primary kicking option but Squiggsy has been developing this area of his game and has more metres kicking from hand than Bennett.

Both men will know that a big finish to the season could put them back into the Scotland squad for their tour to Romania and Georgia.

Glasgow v Edinburgh at Scotstoun in the PRO12/14 era:

• 7 wins
• 2 losses
• 2 Try BPs
• 30 points out of a possible 45 (67%)

Most recent match-up:

Officials:

Referee: Adam Jones (WRU, 10th competition game)
AR1: Sam Grove-White (SRU)
AR2: Fin Brown (SRU)
TMO: Hollie Davidson (SRU)

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

Matches – 2 (all refs – 101)
Average penalty count – 22.0 per game (all refs – 19.1)
Home penalty percentage – 45% (all refs – 52%)
Average card count – 1.0 per game (all refs – 1.3)
Penalties per card – 22 (all refs – 15)

Mr Jones made his Warriors’ debut earlier this year in a feisty clash when Glasgow took on Munster at Scotstoun. The Welsh whistler yellow carded both skippers that evening with Billy Holland and Ryan Wilson sent to the sin bin within the space of six second half minutes. Maybe Edinburgh are just hedging their bets by naming co-captains. Or maybe they’re just doubling the chances of the ref finding someone to be annoyed by…