Match preview: Glasgow Warriors v Ulster, United Rugby Championship 2022/23

KO 7.35 at Scotstoun Stadium
Friday 16th February 2023
Live on Viaplay Sports 1

• It has been 1,373 days since Glasgow last beat Ulster in a competitive fixture.
• That’s in no small part due to the idiosyncrasies of the URC and PRO14 setups, as well as one thing and another, meaning that Ulster have only travelled to play a league game at Scotstoun once in the last 3 years and 9 months.
• Immediately prior to that they played in Glasgow twice in the space of six weeks at the tail end of the 2018/19 season, losing the two matches by a combined score of 80 – 27.
• The 8 players on Glasgow’s bench have more previous appearances in the league (513) than the 15 starters (441).
• In fact both sides have plenty of experience to call from on the among the subs. The 5 backs listed as replacements have an average of 146 previous games for their clubs. The 2 backup hookers have more games between them than the 6 starting front rows combined.
• This is the first time since October 2018 that the Warriors have named a starting lineup with fewer than 100 Test caps in it (99 for Friday’s team).
• Youthful scrum half, Jamie Dobie, is the Warrior to Watch.

Teams

(players in CAPITALS are full capped internationals, numbers in brackets are previous appearances for Glasgow / Ulster)

Head to Head:

Back 3 – EVEN

Centres – ADV Glasgow

Half Backs – ADV Ulster

Front Row – ADV Glasgow

Second Row – ADV Ulster

Back Row – ADV Glasgow

Subs – EVEN

Glasgow Greetings:

Scott Cummings will run out at Scotstoun for the first time since the win over the Bulls 133 days ago. Injuries have meant that a player who would likely be one of the first names on the teamsheet has only played in 5 of the club’s last 21 fixtures. It will be great to have the big man back.

Matchday Milestones:

Jamie Bhatti has been selected in the Warriors’ matchday squad for 24 of their last 25 matches. The only time he missed out was against Benetton in Round 7 when he was stymied by the small matter of playing for Scotland the following day!

Warrior to Watch:

Still only 21, Jamie Dobie is fast closing in on a half-century of appearances for Glasgow. While he won’t be the youngest to hit that milestone (John Barclay managed it aged just 21 years and 31 days) it certainly puts him in some elite company. Johnnie Beattie, Stuart Hogg, Duncan Weir and Rob Harley all also played 50 times for the club before they turned 22. Young Dobie can hopefully draw inspiration from some genuine Warriors’ legends who helped set the standards the current generation must meet.

The key to his game is quickness – to the ruck; in his pass; and, crucially, in his speed of thought. The Ulster pack will be in his face from minute one so it’s important that Jamie can deal with this – and potentially some slow or scrappy ball – in order to get the backline playing at the tempo they need to test the visitors’ defence.

Glasgow at home to Ulster in the PRO12/PRO14/URC era:

• 6 wins
• 2 losses
• 3 Try BPs
• 2 Losing BPs
• 29 points out of a possible 40 (72%)

Previous match-up v Ulster at Scotstoun:

Officials:

Referee: Craig Evans (WRU, 41st league game)
AR1: Jonny Perriam (SRU)
AR2: Ru Campbell (SRU)
TMO: Jon Mason (WRU)

Mr Evans’ regular season record for 2022/23:

Matches – 12
Average penalty count – 21.8 per game
Home side penalties conceded percentage – 42.1%
Average card count – 1.5 per game
Penalties per card – 14.5

Mr Evans’ most recent outing was another Glasgow game – when they travelled to play Perpignan in the Challenge Cup. On that occasion the visiting Warriors copped it a bit with no less than 3 yellow cards and a penalty count that went against them 15 – 7.

The Welsh whistler was in more favourable form on his last trip to Scotstoun in November – the 37 – 0 thrashing of Benetton that saw the Italian side lose 2 players to the sin bin and end up on the wrong end of an 18 – 10 penalty count.

Hopefully this tendency to favour the home side continues on Friday night and brings a bit of an advantage to Glasgow.

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Additional ref stats from: https://www.cardiffrfcfans.com/analysis/referee_heads.php?countryID=1