Need to Know: Lyon v Glasgow Warriors, Challenge Cup match preview 2021/22

KO 8.00 (local time 9.00) at Matmut Stadium
Saturday 7th May 2022
Live on BT Sports Extra 3

• This will be the fourth European quarter-final in Glasgow’s history but the first time they have played anyone other than Saracens in one of these fixtures.
• The Warriors have won 7 of their 26 matches on French soil in European competition.
• Glasgow’s starting pack weighs in at 918kg which is above their average of 907kg this season.
• Precocious full back, Ollie Smith, is the Warrior to Watch.

Teams

Head to Head:

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

Changes from Round 16:

Glasgow changes from their game v Newcastle:

• INS – Ollie Smith, Jamie Bhatti, Zander Fagerson, Rob Harley, Ally Miller, Jack Dempsey
• OUTS – Sebastian Cancelliere, Oli Kebble, Simon Berghan, Scott Cummings, Tom Gordon, Rory Darge

Lyon changes from their game v Worcester:

• INS – Toby Arnold, Davit Niniashvili, Leo Berdeu, Sebastian Taofifenua, Yanis Charcosset, Beka Saginadze, Patrick Sobela
• OUTS – Clement Laporte, Ethan Dumortier, Lima Sopoaga, Jerome Rey, Guillaume Marchand, Colby Fainga’a, Jordan Taufua.

Glasgow Greetings:

Nathan McBeth, Gregor Brown and Domingo Miotti are all in line to make the their European debuts for the Warriors.

Matchday Milestones:

Johnny Matthews’ third minute score against Newcastle in the Round of 16 made him the first Glasgow player to cross for a try in the Challenge Cup for more than 15 years (the last being Rory Lamont against Saracens, 2nd April 2007).

Anyone who bags a five-pointer for the Warriors on Saturday evening could join a pretty short list of players who have scored for the club in a European quarter-final – Rory Lamont (2007); Lee Jones and Ryan Wilson (2017); Ali Price, George Horne and Matt Fagerson (2019).

Warrior to Watch:

Ollie Smith has played eight minutes of European rugby and has scored two tries. While it might be too much to expect him to maintain his career average of a try every four minutes (20 tries on his own in this game if he plays the full 80 certainly seems a smidgen ambitious) the young full back should definitely bring plenty of attacking intent when he gets on the ball.

While most of his back 3 colleagues in the Warriors’ Depth Chart tend to be full back / wings, Ollie is in the Stuart Hogg mould as a full back / outside centre. In fact, having played much of his rugby at age grade level and for Ayr at 13 there’s still a possibility that this could end up as his long term position for Glasgow.

For now, though he is maturing nicely in the 15 shirt having started there in seven of the last eight matches he has been available for. With the Warriors’ backs in a rebuilding phase Ollie has the opportunity to make himself a central part of the first team for the coming seasons.

Past meetings:

8/12/18 at Matmut Stadium (report)
Lyon 22
T: Toby Arnold, Noa Nakaitaci, Charl McLeod
C: Jonathan Pelissie, Jean-Marc Doussain
P: Jonathan Pelissie
Glasgow Warriors 42
T: Adam Ashe (2), George Horne, Stuart Hogg, Huw Jones
C: Adam Hastings (4)
P: Adam Hastings (3)

15/12/18 at Scotstoun Stadium (report)
Glasgow Warriors 21
T: Niko Matawalu (2)
C: Adam Hastings
P: Adam Hastings (3)
Lyon 10
T: Pierre-Louis Barassi
C: Jean-Marc Doussain
P: Jean-Marc Doussain

Both of these clubs have seen a significant turnover in players in a little over three years since they last met. The only players in the matchday 23s who featured in both of their past meetings are:

Lyon – Pierre-Louis Barassi, Jean-Marc Doussain, Hamza Kaabeche, Patrick Sobela

Glasgow – Jamie Bhatti, Rob Harley, Ali Price, George Turner

Previous meeting in Lyon:

Officials:

Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
AR1: Nika Amashukeli (Georgia)
AR2: Anthony Woodthorpe (England)
TMO: Ian Tempest (England)

Mr Carley’s record for 2021/22:

Matches – 16
Average penalty count – 23.5 per game
Home side penalties conceded percentage – 47.9
Average card count – 1.75 per game
Penalties per card – 13.4

Mr Carley took charge of Glasgow’s previous visit to France this season when they lost 20-13 to La Rochelle. The Warriors conceded 13 penalties that day (to 11 for the home side) and had Rory Darge sin binned.

The English whistler was also the man in the middle when these two sides met in Lyon in the 2018/19 Champions Cup. On that occasion, despite winning the match by a margin of 20 points, Glasgow coughed up no less than 16 penalties and had Tim Swinson yellow carded.

If they are to have a chance of a win in what will be one of their toughest matches of the season, the Warriors really need to find a way to keep on the good side of a ref who definitely tends towards high penalty and card counts.

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Additional ref stats from:

https://www.cardiffrfcfans.com/analysis/referee_heads.php?countryID=2