ERCC: Pool 4, Round 1- Glasgow Warriors v Bath Rugby

                  
Glasgow Warriors v Bath Rugby
Pool 4, Round 1
Saturday 18 October
KO: 15:15
Scotstoun Stadium

Live on BT Sport

Referee Jerome Garces (France)
Touch Judge 1 Maxime Chalon (France)
Touch Judge 2 Thomas Charabas (France)
Fourth Official Jean-Marie Piraveau (France)
TMO Jean-Marie Piraveau (France)

Citing Commissioner John Cole (Ireland)

A. Teams:

1. Glasgow Warriors


15 Stuart Hogg
14 Sean Maitland
13 Mark Bennett
12 Peter Horne
11 Tommy Seymour
10 Duncan Weir
9 Henry Pyrgos (capt)

1 Gordon Reid
2 Pat MacArthur
3 Euan Murray
4 Leone Nakarawa
5 Jonny Gray
6 Robert Harley
7 Chris Fusaro
8 Adam Ashe

16 Doug Hall
17 Jerry Yanuyanutawa
18 Rossouw de Klerk
19 Tim Swinson
20 Tyrone Holmes
21 Niko Matawalu
22 Finn Russell
23
DTH van der Merwe

2. Bath Rugby


15. Gavin Henson
14. Semesa Rokoduguni
13. Jonathan Joseph
12. Kyle Eastmond
11. Anthony Watson
10. George Ford
9. Micky Young

1. Nick Auterac
2. Ross Batty
3. Henry Thomas
4. Stuart Hooper ( c )
5. Dave Attwood
6. Dominic Day
7. Guy Mercer
8. David Sisi

16. Rob Webber
17. Paul James
18. David Wilson
19. Charlie Ewels
20. Tom Ellis
21. Peter Stringer
22. Ollie Devoto
23. Horacio Agulla

B. Current Form

1. Glasgow Warriors

20/9/14 - Newport Gwent Dragons 13 - 33 Glasgow Warriors

26/9/14 - Glasgow Warriors 39 - 21 Connacht Rugby

5/10/14 - Benetton Treviso 23 - 40 Glasgow Warriors

11/10/14 - Ulster Rugby 29 - 9 Glasgow Warriors

2. Bath Rugby

13/9/14 - Bath Rugby 53 - 26 London Welsh

20/9/14 - Bath Rugby 45 - 0 Leicester Tigers

27/9/14 - Northampton Saints 31 - 24 Bath Rugby

3/10/14 - Bath Rugby 21 - 11 Saracens

C. Previous European Honours

1. Glasgow Warriors - None

2. Bath Rugby - Heineken Cup: 1997-98 / European Challenge Cup: 2007-08

A mouthwatering prospect

Both beaten this week, both teams who like to play high risk fast paced games.

Don't be too hasty TJ that's 29-19 to Coventry, 10 mins to go.

This is the only time I can remember our Western cousins looking forward to a Bath.

justified sinner wrote:Don't be too hasty TJ that's 29-19 to Coventry, 10 mins to go.

:-)

Cracking fightback. they have looked dangerous all game

TJ wrote:

justified sinner wrote:Don't be too hasty TJ that's 29-19 to Coventry, 10 mins to go.

:-)

Cracking fightback.  they have looked dangerous all game

OK, both Bath and Glasgow did lose this weekend. Enjoyed the Bath game. One gripe I thought JP Doyle was very inconsistent and should have shown the Bath 8 a red in the first half for picking up and driving the Wasps scrummy into the ground.

Glasgow I think can put out a stronger team than they did this weekend. Can bath? Glasgow will have to starve them of possesion and score tries themselves 'cos I think bath have shown they will score

Blimey didn't realise Glasgows opening run of games had been so easy! Interesting that they lost as soon as the opposition became tougher.

Yes the Bath team were missing a fair few key forwards too, but I still think they'll have too much for Glasgow.

justified sinner wrote:

TJ wrote:

justified sinner wrote:Don't be too hasty TJ that's 29-19 to Coventry, 10 mins to go.

:-)

Cracking fightback.  they have looked dangerous all game

OK, both Bath and Glasgow did lose this weekend. Enjoyed the Bath game. One gripe I thought JP Doyle was very inconsistent and should have shown the Bath 8 a red in the first half for picking up and driving the Wasps scrummy into the ground.

Even if I agreed with your assessment of Houston's actions, hard for Doyle to do though. The screens at Adams Park were not giving great pictures, and he was dependent on the TMOs description of the incident. What was described to Doyle was a YC and no more.

Agreed, still the wrong call straight in front of the touchie who should have called it.

yappysnap wrote:Blimey didn't realise Glasgows opening run of games had been so easy! Interesting that they lost as soon as the opposition became tougher.

Yes the Bath team were missing a fair few key forwards too, but I still think they'll have too much for Glasgow.

First game of the season involved Glasgow beating Leinster, Yappy. Tough enough for you?

Glasgow rested a number of players for the Ulster game, so hopefully they will be able to provide a competitive side for you and other discerning patrons.

GC - Swinson, Brown and Reid may not be considered starters, but the rest of the team looks first choice to me (from the 3 Glasgow games I've seen this season).

Ulster were missing Pienaar, Jackson, Luke Marshall, Cave, Tuohy and Henderson from what I take to be their 1st choice team.

Some injured, but equally some rested.

It will be an interesting game for sure. Wasps' forwards got the better of what is supposed to be an intimidating Bath pack yesterday.

Is it an area Glasgow can dominate? I feel they will have to in order to win. Bath have backs that will cut teams to ribbons, and therefore Glasgow will need to starve them of possession. Plus they will have to make their first up tackles; miss and their backs are gone.

For me Glasgow's game is easily defended if you don't commit too many to the breakdown and defend the fringes of the ruck, where Glasgow look to gain momentum.

We shall see.

Hound of Harrow wrote:GC - Swinson, Brown and Reid may not be considered starters, but the rest of the team looks first choice to me (from the 3 Glasgow games I've seen this season).

Ulster were missing Pienaar, Jackson, Luke Marshall, Cave, Tuohy and Henderson from what I take to be their 1st choice team.

Some injured, but equally some rested.

It will be an interesting game for sure. Wasps' forwards got the better of what is supposed to be an intimidating Bath pack yesterday.

Is it an area Glasgow can dominate? I feel they will have to in order to win. Bath have backs that will cut teams to ribbons, and therefore Glasgow will need to starve them of possession. Plus they will have to make their first up tackles; miss and their backs are gone.

For me Glasgow's game is easily defended if you don't commit too many to the breakdown and defend the fringes of the ruck, where Glasgow look to gain momentum.

We shall see.

It will be tough, Hound - no doubt. Glasgow were well beaten, but similarly didn't play well (or weren't allowed to, depending on your point of view).

From what I would consider Glasgow's first choice matchday squad, they were resting or missing Ryan Grant, Jon Welsh, Michael Cusack, Kevin Bryce, Duncan Weir, Alex Dunbar, Stuart Hogg and Rossouw de Klerk - not an insubstantial list. Towsend also didn't start a lot of guys that he conventionally would have started like Gray and Matawalu.

So to answer your question, yes, I think that Glasgow can put out a much better team and they can also play much better. Whether they will beat Bath depends on whether they can out-hustle the pack and Glasgow have (or had!) some of the best breakdown work in the league (the reason that they have won the Rhino Collision Kings award a couple of times). But it's all completely subjective of course, and if Wasps hadn't inflicted the defeat at the weekend, I would be Frantically Worried rather than just Very Worried.

What is also true is that Glasgow will never be taken seriously by people who are fans of other clubs until they start winning in Europe - regardless of how well they have done in the league. Townsend knows that and we cannot have a season like last season where we got hobbled by the Blues home and away.

I think we'll see tries. I just don't want Eastmond and Joseph to be the ones scoring them.

Anyone know what happened to Bennett/if he'll be available?

Bennett was grabbed around the neck during a collective choke tackle and blacked out. As he was disorientated, they took him off as a precaution and he has since Tweeted that he's fine. The incident was reported to the Citing Officer.

Well after yesterday I am concerned about this game, our front row looked out of sorts and were well dealt with by Wasps. They have started every game so far as a unit, which maybe isn't the best plan over a long season. Our back row is pretty weakened by injuries too and Wasps took full advantage there. Although the Wasps backrow is arguably one of the strongest in the AP when all fit and on form, so that was hardly a shock.

Still, having said all that I believe we should be in with a good chance of getting something from the game, especially if we can parity up front so we can get our backline firing and into the match.

So in other words:  You're worried but...you ain't that worried about it.

Worried that we won't win yes, but I'd hope we could nick a LBP if we lose...

This game should be a cracker. I tipped Bath right from the start of the season and they haven't disappointed. Even losing to Wasps yesterday some of the Bath backline play was of the highest quality. Ford, Eastmond and Joseph are on fire and Rokoduguni is a livewire.

Glasgow will need to defend in the same manner as Wasps and seek to smother Bath at source. They should also be clever and seek to collide with the dummy runners as much as possible. Bath backs moves tend to use players in front of the ball carrier, and it's easy for players to "become" an obstruction, even when the defending wouldn't have reached the ball carrier in any event. The Eastmond try that was disallowed was an example of this yesterday, where I thought Wasps were quite smart at highlighting an "obstruction" where I felt that Ford would have probably made the pass in any event.

Where Glasgow can do well is on their own ball, because Glasgow can attack from anywhere, and in particular have the ball carriers to take the ball through the middle and offload. Haskell, Johnson and Hughes did that well yesterday and made good ground. Harley, Naka, Strauss and Fusaro will need to do the same, prompted by Matawalu. It may seem daft openning up the game against a side like Bath, but Glasgow have some match winning game breakers of their own (Seymour, Maitland, Hogg and Dunbar).

This match is a must-see.

With these two backlines, this game could be a try fest, which would be excellent for neutrals.

Glasgow scored 21 tries in their first 5 games so far this season and Bath have scored 22 in their first 6 games. That has to be the best aggregate of any two teams starting the ERCC this month. Both sides have serious gas and can make something out of nothing.

Looking forward to it.

What are the odds of it being a crap game now it's been talked up?

You'd 'expect' Glasgow to win (one of the best sides in the Pro12) but you'd 'expect' Bath to do reasonably well (one of the best sides in the Jeff). So that would be 4:1 points in Glasgow's favour.

So I'm going for either a Bath win or Glasgow TBP win.

(EDIT: mustn't forget the 6-6 no try draw, got to be on the cards)

I go for it being a crap, defensively-set nervy-fest of gloom and attrition.



What? - You gotta always have an alternative vew from the devil, don't ya?

feS - the Bath backs run some cracking lines at pace. I reckon Wasps players must have spent some late nights studying them during the week!

But boy, they keep coming at you and the amount of tackles we had to make wore us down in the end.

If both teams bring their league form to the party (the last two results notwithstanding) it could be the most entertaining game of round 1.

Hound of Harrow wrote:feS - the Bath backs run some cracking lines at pace. I reckon Wasps players must have spent some late nights studying them during the week!

But boy, they keep coming at you and the amount of tackles we had to make wore us down in the end.

If both teams bring their league form to the party (the last two results notwithstanding) it could be the most entertaining game of round 1.

Agreed - Wasps had really done their homework. The angles and passing of the Bath backline was at times sublime.

George Ford must surely now be a shoe-in for the England 10 jersey and surely Eastmond for 12 as well. They work well together, and if you put Burrell or Tuilagi outside those two then the England midfield could be back in business.

Talking about England, their depth is seriously good - imagine a backline of, say, (on form) Care, Ford, Wade, Eastmond, Tuilagi(?), Wade, Watson. Would be great to see that team play the Baba's or Fiji.

Wade is fast to be sure, but there is only one of him.

It just seems like there are two, at times.

Put Rokoduguni on the other wing from Wade - then you'll have some backline.

funnyExiledScot wrote:Put Rokoduguni on the other wing from Wade - then you'll have some backline.

Pretty sure they are both right wings, but Roko is having an awesome season so I would try and fit him in.

I'd still rather have Roko on the left wing than Yarde at the moment. Wing for me is all about form and confidence, and Yarde just isn't strutting his stuff at the moment.

I've been impressed with May as well this season, so he's another left wing option. So fast and elusive, although he does look sometimes as if he may snap in two if the wind picks up.

I am going for try bonus point each, losers bonus point, narrow win - but who for? Glasgow shade it I think. I think their pack will be good enough to starve Bath of the ball. For sure any kicking game from Glasgow will have to be good and those bath backs look terrifying from a Scots point of view.

Do Glasgow start Matowalo? Or save him until the game opens up? Do Glasgow try to play it tight and use their forwards - or play the high risk high tempo offloading game they do so well? I reckon Townsend will go for the high risk approach - but it could backfire

I think we all know that "high risk" = "the Fijians all start".

George Carlin wrote:I think we all know that "high risk" = "the Fijians all start".

They are fantastic to watch and at the same time you want to cringe. My favourite is Nakwara with about 3 tacklers hanging off him waving the ball around in one hand trying to find an offload

don't half make for a fun game tho when toonie goes the "full Fijian"

Garces the farce is the ref, game over already that dude hates pro 12 teams.

Well Austin Healey is thinking Glasgow may do well this year.

Kiss of death, Hammer, kiss of death.
On a serious note I think if Glasgow lose this then we're out as it would mean we need to pick up two away wins.If Bath lose they can still look to win all their home games and target a sneaky win at Toulouse or Montpellier. easy peasy

Don't think we have the grunt and go forward in the back row, with the exception of Strauss , to take us through. Bath have a powerful unit and they will have noted what Ulster did to us at contact. A big attacking six and seven still needed I feel , tho dearly hope I'm wrong

Jimbopip, that's the double edged sword for having a home game first. Good chance to get off to a winning start, but if you fluff it up you'r almost done already. Although I remember a few years ago Irish beating Leinster in Dublin. Can't remember if they won it that year or 'just' made the semi.

Luvtotup,
6. Bluto or Harley possibly Jedi (tackling, tackling or tackling)
7. Sherlock or Fozzie (grunt or mobility?)
8. Ashe or Bluto (mobility or grunt?)

Toonie may go with the Tombola and put Naka at 6 or 8. There's no shortage of bulk and grunt.
We may even see Gray and Kellock in the second row and Swinson at 6. But then again...

The lack of online information about these games is really irritating.
I can't find previews anywhere.

Well No8 Houston is suspended for 3 games, which means the already depleted back row is looking seriously bare. Mercer and Sisi to start I guess, plus either a lock at 6 or an academy lad with no first team experience. Doesn't bode well...

Perhaps Steffon Armitage might be a good option for Bath......

He would walk into the team at the moment I would think! In fact any backrower with boots and a gumshield would get a game!

Bathman_in_London wrote:He would walk into the team at the moment I would think! In fact any backrower with boots and a gumshield would get a game!

Hold your horses. Let me introduce you to Mr Mike "Leadership" Coman. Believe me, David Wilson would make a better fist of the 7 jersey.

If Glasgow don't get their scrum sorted, then they have no chance. If we can get at least parity then we should be in with a good chance.

For these big games the back row still remains an area of concern for me. For all the good work in recruiting Toonie has done, his one glaring error for me is not offering Barclay a new deal.

luvtotup wrote:Don't think we have the grunt and go forward in the back row, with the exception of Strauss , to take us through. Bath have a powerful unit and they will have noted what Ulster did to us at contact. A big attacking six and seven still needed I feel , tho dearly hope I'm wrong

Ryan Wilson has been a big miss, him at Eight and Strauss at Six gives us a far better balanced back row. Wilson did play last week for Stirling County, so isn't far away from a return but this weekend might be too soon.

Dorothy_Mantooth wrote:If Glasgow don't get their scrum sorted, then they have no chance.  If we can get at least parity then we should be in with a good chance.

For these big games the back row still remains an area of concern for me.  For all the good work in recruiting Toonie has done, his one glaring error for me is not offering Barclay a new deal.  

Or making an offer to Rennie..

Still think Glasgow are weak on the loosehead side in terms of scrummaging, Murray and de Kerk should be ok on the other side.
Bad news is Bryce is still injured and i like very much what i have seen from him, he adds some much needed ball carrying. As it is i would start with Hall, scrum improved massively when he came on for Brown last week.

What team are people expecting from Toonie?  Always tough to guess his selections.

I'd like to see

Hogg, DTH, Bennett, Dunbar, Seymour, Russell, Prygos, Strauss, Holmes, Harley, Gray, Nakarawa, Murray, MacArthur, Reid

Brown, Allan, Fargeson, Swinson, Ashe, Niko, Weir, Maitland

I reckon Weir will start.

Also Fagerson isn't registered (thankfully, you don't want a 18 years old TH away to Toulouse), which means De Kerk is fit or that Yanuyanutawa covers TH and it could be carnage.

I would definitely start with Holmes too but i am pretty sure Toonie will go with Fusaro.

reallybored wrote:What team are people expecting from Toonie?  Always tough to guess his selections.

I'd like to see

Hogg, DTH, Bennett, Dunbar, Seymour, Russell, Prygos, Strauss, Holmes, Harley, Gray, Nakarawa, Murray, MacArthur, Reid

Brown, Allan, Fargeson, Swinson, Ashe, Niko, Weir, Maitland

I would start with Niko personally, and would switch Brown and MacArthur, but otherwise agreed.

There are so many danger areas in the Bath backline that Glasgow will need to really be at the top of their game, both in defence and attack.

Should be a cracker!