Warriors v Dragons 7.30 Friday 2 Nov, Scotstoun, Glasgow

No teams yet - imagine coaches are waiting for the Ints squad returnees. C'mon The Warriors

Hahahaha. We aren't waiting for our one player. We have named an extended squad. I'll get it, but basically Dan Evans is back in, Adam Hughes is injured and Andy Tuilagi and Will Harries have been dropped after last week.

Dragons squad: D Evans, T Prydie, T Chavhanga, H Amos, J Dixon, A Smith, P Leach, L Robling, Steffan Jones, J Evans, L Davies, P Price, N Williams, Steve Jones, H Gustafson, N Buck, D Way, T Ryan, R Sidoli, A Jones, I Nimmo, J Groves, T Brown, L Evans, I Jones, N Cudd.

So I think we'll see

Evans, Chav, Leach, Smith, Prydie, Jones, Evans, Price, Jones, Way, Sid, Jones, Evans (c), Groves, Brown

Williams, Buck, Goose, Nimmo, Cudd, Davies, Robling, Dixon

Glasgow pack will pick itself but God knows who'll line up in the backs.

This will be 6 league wins on the bounce for Glasgow if they can pull this one off. Glasgow team has been announced:

15 Peter Murchie

14 Tommy Seymour
13 Alex Dunbar
12 Troy Nathan
11 Taylor Paris

10 Scott Wight
9 Niko Matawalu

1 Gordon Reid
2 Dougie Hall
3 Mike Cusack
4 Tom Ryder
5 Tim Swinson
6 Rob Harley
7 Chris Fusaro (CAPTAIN)
8 Josh Strauss

SUBSTITUTES

16 Finlay Gillies
17 Ofa Fainga’anuku
18 German Araoz
19 James Eddie
20 John Barclay
21 Ryan Wilson
22 Sean Kennedy
23 Peter Horne

Not considered for selection due to injury:
Chris Cusiter (shoulder), Ed Kalman (back), Rory Lamont (leg), Sean Lamont (face), Moray Low (knee), Pat MacArthur (foot), Angus Macdonald (neck), Byron McGuigan (ribs), Graeme Morrison (propensity for crapness), DTH van der Merwe (hamstring), Jon Welsh (shoulder), Duncan Weir (knee).

That's a pretty good looking team in the circumstances. Couple of points:

1. Big Gordy hasn't been too bad in his first pro season - Hall and Cusack must be comforting to pack down next to - good front row.

2. Ryder and Swinson is an excellent combo potentially but we'll have to see how the set piece works without Big Al calling the lineouts.

3. How the breakaway will go is going to depend entirely on whether the Ginger Tackle Monster and His Fozzyness play after some time injured and out of form respectively. Lovely to see them back in any event. Slightly nervous about Fozzy being captain as it all went jubblies up last time. Hopefully he'll have learned something.

4. Niko and Wight is an absolutely rapid half back combo and I'm really looking forward to seeing it. Hopefully Wight can continue to kick for goal well although Horne can step in if we're starting to leak points there.

5. Like the look of a Dunbar/Nathan hinge very much - both good steppers and both can play a good heads up game.

6. Good lord. Mr Paris, I presume?

How confident are Dragons fans in their team?

That's a strong team to be putting out considering the circumstances. The pack particularly has a good feel to it - all fit and firing that would be my first choice backrow. As you say, George, I hope Harley and Fozzy come out all guns blazing - I have a feeling that the Scotland snub may inspire Fusaro to further levels of reckless abandon.

The backs have a number of new combinations, I hope they all click. Looking forward to seeing Matawalu in his favored position.

George Carlin wrote:How confident are Dragons fans in their team?

Not very. Unless we play Cudd, we don't have a natural 7. Obviously we always have front five issues and I do feel our centres will be slightly unbalanced.

On the plus side, I love it when Tom Brown plays at 8 and having Dan Evs back is good news.

Good looking Glasgow team given 12 out with injury and another half dozen or so away with the Scotland squad - happy with that. How come Horne has fallen slightly out of favour?

Graeme Morrison (propensity for crapness)



Three things I want to see:

1) Paris get the ball in some space. His performance for Canada at 7's was superb. However, I expect the Dragons will be wary of that and will be all over him like a cheap suit!

2) A gap around the fringe defence for Niko to take advantage of. For a 9, the guy has serious pace.

3) Ofa to put in more of those thumping hits when he gets on.

How is Cudd doing anyway, haven't caught as much of the Dragons games as I usually do (haven't even been down to the Dave yet! )

Slightly disappointed that Alba aren't showing this, seeing as BBC 2 NI have the Ulster v Embra game anyway.

Cudd hasn't really had much of a chance yet. Edwards tends to go with Lewis Evans at 7 (when we have Danny and Toby), or otherwise Jevon Groves (which I'm not a fan of). I watched the Keys v Newport game and was amazed by how small he was.

Glasgae should have this one in the bag, we don't travel well....and seem to play badly at home now too... awesome

Glad Evans is back, though even if it was televised I'm going to go see Skyfall instead, it's tiring watching us lose all the time

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Good looking Glasgow team given 12 out with injury and another half dozen or so away with the Scotland squad - happy with that. How come Horne has fallen slightly out of favour?

Was injured last week.

Thanks Dot

Glasgow fans can't complain about a lack of TV coverage - this is their first game this season that hasn't been on TV!!!

EVANS DUO RETURN TO FACE WARRIORS
By Katie Vizard | 01/11/2012

Dragons captain Lewis Evans has come back from a groin strain and will lead out the Men of Gwent as he returns to the starting line up for their trip to Glasgow.
His namesake Dan also returns to the team at fullback after recovering from a thumb injury.
Back Row Nic Cudd also returns to the team with his second start for the region and in the backs, Darren Edwards will run out a new centre partnership for the season with Ashley Smith lining up inside Pat Leach.

Dragons Team for Glasgow Warriors Match
Dan Evans, Tonderai Chavhanga, Pat Leach, Ashley Smith, Tom Prydie, Lewis Robling; Jonathan Evans; Phil Price, Steve Jones, Nathan Buck, Ian Nimmo, Rob Sidoli, Lewis Evans (c), Nic Cudd, Tom Brown.

Replacements:
Hugh Gustafson, Nathan Williams, Dan Way, Adam Jones, Jevon Groves, Liam Davies, Steffan Jones, Hallam Amos.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Glasgow fans can't complain about a lack of TV coverage - this is their first game this season that hasn't been on TV!!!

Think it was only me that mentioned it, but that's fair enough then. Tv hoggers.

They should be showing you cos its hour bif'day

Precisely

Dragons without Evans and Parry, I see.

Bring on Big Mike Cusack, the penalty procuring scrummaging monster.

George Carlin wrote:Dragons without Evans and Parry, I see.

Bring on Big Mike Cusack, the penalty procuring scrummaging monster.

just a couple more years and we can get him in a Scotland jersey!

Scot Abroad wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Dragons without Evans and Parry, I see.

Bring on Big Mike Cusack, the penalty procuring scrummaging monster.

just a couple more years and we can get him in a Scotland jersey!

He may not be able to run the length of himself, but the man can push.

It would need to be a rather large jersey chaps.

Remember guys it is Movember - I am on it to assist a charity as one of meh amigos got a knacker cut off due to the dreaded Big C of the ging gangs

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:It would need to be a rather large jersey chaps.

Remember guys it is Movember - I am on it to assist a charity as one of meh amigos got a knacker cut off due to the dreaded Big C of the ging gangs

Clyde will be doing his part for Movember again... And so will I!

UiG - I am going for a Marc Lievremont/ Dartagnan dashing number- wah hay!

Great stuff guys - I would do movember but my face is yet to hit puberty!

I'll see what Clyde comes up with but it may be the mexicana... Still better than my blonde bumfluff...

RD - you know what comes next courtesy of GC and Jimbopip ?????

See you tomorrow Clyde /UiG !

Right fellas, PM me your justgiving or whatever pages so I can donate

Evening all, given the non- availables this is a strong looking side. Interestingly Toonie is exempt from all criticism re selection. Who else could he have picked?
Nathan is standing at the brass rail in the Last Chance Saloon. Will he buy a round or find nothing in his pocket but fluff?
Niko looks/is speedy but at Franklin gdns he ran three quarters of a lap of the pitch chasing the ball and only stopped when he ran head first into Schlong's cheekbone.Would you put your house on his steady, unflustered game management? But it's alright I hear you cry he has that old head Wight outside him!
Seriously, the pack should win plenty of ball and we should win convincingly but it could be a Pyhric victory as it will be difficult to assess. Then Taylor and Nathan are back at square one. Hope this makes sense.

Great that people are doing Movember.

I'm doing it myself, but the shade of my hair, the propensity of that hair to grow directly below my nose, and my natural side parting is guaranteed to look...

...inappropriate.

Still, if you're a fan, feel free to donate!
http://uk.movember.com/mospace/733286

Cheers fellas.

I still would have liked to have see Horne starting back with Dunbar and Nathan as bench cover. Fair enough, I can understand that both he and Wight are left-footed kickers so Nathan could give us slightly better distribution. I don't agree with a 5-2 split where Glasgow are concerned - they are consistently strong up front in the Pro 12. We probably won't need that amount of back-row cover, given who we have in the second row and we're not going to help our strength in depth by doing that rather than including an academy player on the bench if we're all out of backs. Surely we've still got someone else, e.g. Thomson?

Interesting that Dragons have the Italian ref Marius Mitrea for our third home game this season. I'm sure we will mess this up on our own, but otherwise at least there's a homer ref and two neutral touchys to assist him

We need to be whiter than white.

Good work, big fella, get your excuses in early!!

Remember that Dreigau have a good record against the Weegies, historically you've been a bogey team for us - and we're missing c.18 players thru injury and away with Scotland

Got to haven't you As. Though I do believe we will lose this through our own incompetence. Glasgow had players missing both games, last season and they still had a win and a draw against us. We are a bit more rubbish nowadays.

I'm just marking this thread, masochist that I am.

Interesting couple of articles in the South Wales Argus today. Firstly, Dragons have gone back to basics for tonight apparently, as catching and tackling are fairly important (I guess) and then secondly, Rob Beale decides to put our young confidence type player tens under pressure by saying neither of them is playing very well.

All good stuff.

"“Rather than coming up with some fancy move it’s just got to be blunt, direct and simple."

Yes skipper, it's a really fancy move sending Tuilagi up the middle constantly. We really are rewriting the book with these fancy dan plays of ours.

Adam Hughes saw so little ball against Ulster. It was Tuilagi up the middle every time. He's a useful weapon to have, but surely you need to keep the opposition guessing? If they know what's coming, they're more likely to be able to counteract it.

To be fair lucky, we've changed it for tonight. It'll be Pat Leach up the middle

Oh, well that'll baffle them!

He's cunning is our Darren hey.

I would be more than happy with a bonus point from tonight's match. That's been our problem (well, one of them): when we've lost, we've lost full stop and come away with nothing to show for our efforts. If we can start picking up bonus points even in defeat, then we can start reeling in the Blues.

RDW - you can have 10 of my years for free, if you like, you foetus you.

Why isn't this being televised? I thought that STV had the rights to all of the Scots teams league games. So there's no point fishing around for a streaming link, then, in that case.

Just hope and pray for no more injuries and that Scotstoun is christened with a win. Bless her and all who sail in her.

You'll be ok George. I'm like Luckless and would take an LBP tonight I think.

As I said. If have thought Alba would have this and NI would have Embra in Ulster, so all Scottish bases are covered. Seems fairly logical to me. Unless they can't broadcast home games or something anymore?

Twitter it is then

Cryptoyourisan wrote:I still would have liked to have see Horne starting back with Dunbar and Nathan as bench cover. Fair enough, I can understand that both he and Wight are left-footed kickers so Nathan could give us slightly better distribution. I don't agree with a 5-2 split where Glasgow are concerned - they are consistently strong up front in the Pro 12. We probably won't need that amount of back-row cover, given who we have in the second row and we're not going to help our strength in depth by doing that rather than including an academy player on the bench if we're all out of backs. Surely we've still got someone else, e.g. Thomson?

Jedi is the Lock cover, Nick Campbell has fallen out of favour for some reason after a decent first season last year, Thompson only covers FB while Troy can be moved to 10/12/13/15 and Pete Horne is only back from injury too. Dunbar covers wing and Seymour can fill in at FB if needed. Don't agree with the 6/2 but you can see why with the injury list/losses to the Scotland panel...

Dragons really need this game.

Risca Rev wrote:You'll be ok George. I'm like Luckless and would take an LBP tonight I think.

As I said. If have thought Alba would have this and NI would have Embra in Ulster, so all Scottish bases are covered. Seems fairly logical to me. Unless they can't broadcast home games or something anymore?

Alba only piggy back on the back of others coverage. So if the game is not shown by a Welsh/Irish/Italian TV company they don't show it.

Hopefully the game not being on TV and it being a decent night weather wise will increase the crowd a little.