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

KO 7.35 at Scotstoun Stadium
Friday 14th April 2023
Live on Viaplay Sports 1 (also BBC Wales)

• Glasgow know that any win against the Scarlets will guarantee them a home quarter-final in the URC playoffs.
• The only opposition sides to win 5 matches at Scotstoun are Scarlets and Leinster.
• The Warriors have only won 2 of their last 8 meetings with Scarlets:
  • December 2018 when there was an early red card for Alex Allan.
  • October 2020 when there was a red card at the start of the second half for the visitor’s lock, Sam Lousi.
• Weighing in at 954kgs, this is the heaviest pack selected by Glasgow this season.
• In the last 2 seasons, the Warriors have been captained by 7 different players. 6 of them are in the squad for Friday night (Kyle Steyn, Stafford McDowall, Sam Johnson, Ali Price and Ryan Wilson starting with Fraser Brown on the bench) while Sione Tuipulotu is the only recent skipper to miss out.
• The Glasgow matchday squad includes 16 players who have won a combined 525 Test caps (315 for 9 starters and 210 for 7 bench players).
• Departing club legend, Ryan Wilson, is the Warrior to Watch.

Teams

(players in CAPITALS are full capped internationals, numbers in brackets are previous appearances for Glasgow / Scarlets this season only)

Head to Head:

Back 3 – EVEN

Centres – ADV Glasgow

Half Backs – EVEN

Front Row – ADV Glasgow

Second Row – ADV Scarlets

Back Row – ADV Glasgow

Subs – ADV Glasgow

Matchday Milestones:

At just 21 years and 312 days old, Jamie Dobie will play his 50th game for Glasgow. There are just a handful of players in the club’s history who have managed this feat at a younger age – John Barclay, Matt Fagerson, Johnnie Beattie, Stuart Hogg and Duncan Weir.

Two of the Warriors’ Lions will move up the rankings for appearances in their respective positions. Zander Fagerson starts for the 91st time, tied with Gordon McIlwham and meaning that only Moray Low (112) has more starts at prop for the club.

Similarly, Ali Price has the number 9 shirt for the 85th time, moving him ahead of Henry Pyrgos (84) and only Graeme Beveridge (101) has started more games at scrum half for Glasgow.

Warrior to Watch:

Ryan Wilson will make his first start at Scotstoun since last October when he runs out in the number 6 shirt on Friday. The veteran has had to work hard to recover from a bad injury picked up against Bath in early December. It’s a testament to the hard work he is willing to put in (even just a month shy of his 34th birthday!) that he has made it back in time to contribute to an exceptionally busy end to the season for the club.

Ryan has always epitomised the Warrior spirit, putting his body on the line for the cause time and time again. The number of games he has finished limping, battered and bruised would put the fear into lesser mortals.

It’s not just his willingness to throw himself into everything that has made Wilson such a great player for Glasgow over the years though. He has been adaptable, shifting across the back row to accommodate teammates and changing his style of play to suit what was best blend for the loose trio.

He is also (in OTOTM’s opinion) the finest back row forward at the lineout to play for the Warriors. His handling and control at the base of the scrum are a fine example for any aspiring number 8s and over the years he has developed a nice line in offloads.

Ultimately though it’s his commitment to the club that has really cemented his legend. 220 games (so far). Only Al Kellock has captained Glasgow on more occasions. In some of the most challenging times the club has faced, Wilson has been there to help drag them through. He will be missed.

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

• 4 wins
• 4 losses
• 3 Losing BPs
• 19 points out of a possible 40 (48%)
• Scarlets also won a PRO14 semi-final at Scotstoun in 2017/18.

Previous match-up v Scarlets at Scotstoun:

Officials:

Referee: Chris Busby (IRFU, 30th league game)
AR1: Ross Mabon (SRU)
AR2: Calum Worsley (SRU)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (IRFU)

Mr Busby’s regular season record for 2022/23:

Matches – 12
Average penalty count – 23.8 per game
Home side penalties conceded percentage – 42.3%
Average card count – 1.1 per game
Penalties per card – 22.0

This will be the fourth time this season that Mr Busby has taken charge of a Warriors game – the home win v Cardiff, away loss to the Sharks and home win against Zebre were the other encounters.

Those previous matches have an aggregate penalty count of 39 – 33 in Glasgow’s favour (although mainly due to a lopsided 18 – 8 count against Zebre) with 3 yellow cards for their opponents while Tom Jordan was the only Warrior sin binned by Mr Busby in those games.

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Additional ref stats from:

https://www.cardiffrfcfans.com/analysis/referee_heads.php?countryID=3