Heineken Cup Round 2: Glasgow Warriors vs Ulster Rugby, Friday 19th October 8.00p.m. Scotstoun Stadium

First topic message reminder :

So Glasgow Warriors open their home account in the Heineken Cup at their new home, Scotstoun, against the form team in Europe, Ulster Rugby.

Will the injuries suffered in their opening matches of the season be too much for them or will the steely defense that served them well all last season and much of the game against Saints prevail?

Or will the much vaunted and dangerous team that Ulster have been slowly evolving into over the past few years be too much for the Glasgow outfit.

Team news and pre-match build up to follow but it already seems like this could be one of the top encounters of the weekend with Scotstoun close to a sellout 10,000....

GLASGOW TEAM

15 Stuart Hogg
14 Byron McGuigan
13 Peter Murchie
12 Peter Horne
11 Alex Dunbar
10 Ruaridh Jackson
9 Henry Pyrgos

1 Ryan Grant
2 Dougie Hall
3 Mike Cusack
4 Tom Ryder
5 Al Kellock (CAPTAIN)
6 Josh Strauss
7 Chris Fusaro
8 Ryan Wilson

SUBSTITUTES 16 Finlay Gillies 17 Ofa Fainga’anuku 18 Gordon Reid 19 Tim Swinson 20 Rob Harley 21 John Barclay 22 Scott Wight 23 Niko Matawalu

ULSTER TEAM

(15-9): J Payne; T Bowe, D Cave, P Wallace, A Trimble; P Jackson, R Pienaar;

(1-8): T Court, R Best, J Afoa, J Muller (c), D Tuohy, I Henderson, C Henry, N Williams;

Replacements (16-23): R Herring, C Black, A Macklin, L Stevenson, M McComish, P Marshall, L Marshall, C Gilroy.

Right folks back in 80min! SUFTUM! .....

bsando wrote:ten mins till kick off! can't wait, come on warriors!!!

Aye, aye I hope they make a game of it.

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

Rava wrote:

Notch wrote:Yeah it's wonderful.

Stephen Ferris and Roger Wilson will hopefully start our next Pro12 game against the Dragons and we'll get to see what they offer. It has to be said Ferris is yet to scale the same heights this season. He's only played 2 games; you would expect him to rise to the challenge the other guys are offering and be a key man once he comes back from injury, but his place is in no way guaranteed!

Feic man you are quick to write off a guy who is recognised as one of the best blindsides in the world. Played most of last season half fit and for all we know played this season not fully fit.

Thats the irish fans for ya heck one of the leinster fans on here has already wrote off Quinn Roux and he's only played 2 games for us. We love writing our own players off.

Eh?

I said he's going to be a key player for Ulster this season, but needs to earn his place just like anyone else. How on earth am I writing him off when I'm saying he's going to be a key player?

Weather looks terrible.

I forgot how much Glasgow's resident DJ loves to play music

Beautiful takes from Payne

So far Glasgow have succeeded in stopping us getting quick ball from a few rucks, its raining heavily and there's a lot of kicking. All set to be an exceptionally close game.

Good news is Payne looks solid. Glasgow will be challenging us under the high ball all night.

It's peeing down there. That could make things difficult.

Well the commentator put the curse on that penalty kick. Nevermind Paddy...try again soon

It's like I said; Glasgows injured stars aren't going to be too missed in attack. It's going to be a slog and glasgows sloggers are all present and correct.

Good save Tommy!

Cusack clearly binding on the arm in that scrum and getting away with it.

Massive scrum from Glasgow.

Absolutely p!ssing down. Terrible conditions - hopefully nobody's going to turn an ankle out there.

Silly silly mistake.

Oi! No taking Tommy out in the air!

oof...big hit on Paddy Wallace, but he's back up.

Pienaar attempting a 62 metre penalty kick in these conditions. Just misses.

Jackson just missed with his as well.

Glasgow strong in the scrum. So much for their injuries. Pen missed though.

Just had to change streams there. This one seems better.

Very close - Ulster lucky it just missed.

Rava wrote:Glasgow strong in the scrum. So much for their injuries. Pen missed though.

I've said it until I'm blue in the face. They have their best 3, 5, 7 and 10 all available. In a game like this? They're not worried about missing Sean Lamont or whoever else. They wouldn't see it anyway.

Glasgow prop was first up there surely.

We have points!

3 - 0 after a second penalty attempt from Horne.

PM Cari

Brilliant from Pienaar and Trimble to win the penalty.

3 - 3 after 24 minutes.

Another outstanding grubber from Pienaar. Such an intelligent 9.

Well done P Jackson. Conditions will dictate the standard of play in this game.

Felt we were a bit passive in the first fifteen minutes but pleased how we've pressurised the breakdown since. Chris Henry has been very good.

Thats a great piece of breakdown work by Glasgow.

Notch wrote:Felt we were a bit passive in the first fifteen minutes but pleased how we've pressurised the breakdown since. Chris Henry has been very good.

He has been outstanding once again. Kidney has to take notice.

I'd be very reluctant to volunteer to sponsor Nick William's butchers bill.

Have also PM'd you Cari.

Some silly individual errors by Jackson and Kellock but otherwise the forwards are fronting up well.

Thanks guys. I'm cool now.

3 - 6 after 33 minutes.

Another good turnover for Ulster. Will be happy to escape with an ugly win, the opposition is tailor made for the conditions.

Did anyone see what happened to Fozzy?

Dying for Matawalu to get that ball in space.

Good defence Ulster.

Notch wrote:Another good turnover for Ulster. Will be happy to escape with an ugly win, the opposition is tailor made for the conditions.

Was it Henry again?

Didn't get the number that time. Horrible shank from Horne there.

I reckon the Ulster forwards are struggling, especially in the scrum, if they have any ambitions about winning this cup they need to learn how to scrummage because they will have to beat better scrummaging sides than Glasgow at the business end of this competition.

Me neither, looked like it was him though.

LordDowlais wrote:I reckon the Ulster forwards are struggling, especially in the scrum, if they have any ambitions about winning this cup they need to learn how to scrummage because they will have to beat better scrummaging sides than Glasgow at the business end of this competition.

Glasgow are actually one of the stronger scrummaging sides around these days. They certainly got the better of Saints last week.

Why the hell:

1. Does Pyrgos take so long to put the ball in?

2. Does Horne take so little time in setting up for his kicks?

HT 3 - 6. Well not a big score, but it reflects conditions.

LordDowlais wrote:I reckon the Ulster forwards are struggling, especially in the scrum, if they have any ambitions about winning this cup they need to learn how to scrummage because they will have to beat better scrummaging sides than Glasgow at the business end of this competition.

Dont you worry mate this is only a temporary blip in our scrum. Expect things to be sorted in the second half.

I'm happy enough with the first half but unhappy we didn't take that seven points that were on offer.

Notch wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:I reckon the Ulster forwards are struggling, especially in the scrum, if they have any ambitions about winning this cup they need to learn how to scrummage because they will have to beat better scrummaging sides than Glasgow at the business end of this competition.

Glasgow are actually one of the stronger scrummaging sides around these days. They certainly got the better of Saints last week.

There are better in this comp Notch, Glasgow are better than they were, but they are not exactly known for their scrummaging, yet they are causing Ulster a world of problems at scrum time.

LordDowlais wrote:I reckon the Ulster forwards are struggling, especially in the scrum, if they have any ambitions about winning this cup they need to learn how to scrummage because they will have to beat better scrummaging sides than Glasgow at the business end of this competition.

The scrum has been one of our biggest strengths..

Rory_Gallagher wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:I reckon the Ulster forwards are struggling, especially in the scrum, if they have any ambitions about winning this cup they need to learn how to scrummage because they will have to beat better scrummaging sides than Glasgow at the business end of this competition.

The scrum has been one of our biggest strengths..

You are kidding, aren't you ? The Ulster front row are popping up all over the place, you have had two pens against you from the scrum as it is, the one just before half time was a bit better but on the whole Ulster are struggling against Glasgow in the scrum.

Glasgow scrums were going backwards or coming up at the end of that first half. Glasgow won two scrum and one of them Cusack was up to no good.

LordDowlais wrote:]There are better in this comp Notch, Glasgow are better than they were, but they are not exactly known for their scrummaging, yet they are causing Ulster a world of problems at scrum time.

Yeah, but if you actually pay attention to rugby- instead of who's 'known' for what- you'll notice that Glasgow have one of the very best scrummaging tightheads in the Pro12 and excellent technique.

They may not be 'known' for their scrummaging but you're watching the two best scrummaging sides in the Pro12. French teams are still better though. And Tom Court needs to up his game against the wily Cusack.

LordDowlais wrote:

Rory_Gallagher wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:I reckon the Ulster forwards are struggling, especially in the scrum, if they have any ambitions about winning this cup they need to learn how to scrummage because they will have to beat better scrummaging sides than Glasgow at the business end of this competition.

The scrum has been one of our biggest strengths..

You are kidding, aren't you ? The Ulster front row are popping up all over the place, you have had two pens against you from the scrum as it is, the one just before half time was a bit better but on the whole Ulster are struggling against Glasgow in the scrum.

Never seen Glasgow as big scrummagers.

Besides Notch believes Northampton are top scrummagers and all they do is pop up all over the place.

Do not try and make a virtue out of ignorance my friends.