Glasgow Warriors v Cardiff Blues Euro Champs Cup Sunday 13th January 15.15

First topic message reminder :

Well what should have been a straightforward home game against a Blues side that are already out of the competition has taken on something of a twist with the collapse of Glasgow's form over the xmas period. Blues will come up to Scotstoun with nothing to lose and may play with a bit of freedom, though it remains to be seen what kind of squad they will bring. All the pressure is on the Warriors for this game, lose it and our season could be going up in smoke, though a good win could be just the tonic to get us back on track.

We should at least be able to get our best team out on the pitch for this one. The injury reports on the injured Warriors Hoggy, Horne and Kebble was all very positive and all the guys who were rested last weekend should be available as well, it will be a very different team from the one that lost to Benetton that takes the field and one that should be able to deliver the platform that we need to let our backs play with a bit of freedom and to score some tries.

So who does he pick for this task? We need some big players to turn up for this one, some leadership that has been sadly lacking in the past three games. The big questions to me are around FH and in the back row. Does he pick Hastings, whose bright start to the season suddenly went a bit dull? He has lead the line in all of our best wins this season and is probably our best goal kicker, but he also looks like he needs a week off, in hindsight, he should of had that last weekend, when DR should have trusted Thompson to start.

Then in the backrow, does he play Ryan Wilson, who also looks a shadow of the player he has been for Glasgow in the past. We have seen a bit of that already, with DR sometimes picking Ashe ahead of him, but he has also blown hot and cold a bit and is not really grabbing his chance to take the shirt and further his international credentials.

I would harbour a guess that we may see something like this:

Keeble
Stewart - seemed to put his throwing demons to bed in Italy
Nuke
Gray
Swinson
Ashe - I think he just shades the battle with Wilson
Gibbins - Capt - also not playing as well as last year, but is DR go to guy
Fagerson M
Price
Horne P - torn about this one as never completely sure about PH at FH, but Hastings needs a rest and come back for Sarries
Seymour
Johnson - one of the few to come out of last week with any credit
Jones H - will the real Huw Jones please stand up
Niko - I think he just shades DTH at the moment, is in great form
Hoggy - Please let him be fit

Allen/Bhatti - could toss a coin
Bryce - No one else
Rae
Harley
Fusaro - DR seems to like a genuine OS to come on to the pitch late on
Horne G
Hastings
DTH

That team should be more than good enough to win if it can rediscover its mojo!

Better from Price

Not sure why the first scrum wasn't penalty try? Very strange, is it so surprising to Glasgow dominant at scrum time?

VinceWLB wrote:Not sure why the first scrum wasn't penalty try? 

Because Doyle is a Poopie ref

Hope the neighbours are out because there’s some colourful language in our household today.

That looked offside to me

HT 14-5 Glasgow

Looks like we are going to have to do it against the wind

BigGee wrote:That looked offside to me

I think it is ok to award a try like that in the benefit of the doubt.

When did Hogg last have a good game? He's not on great form just now ether!

VinceWLB wrote:

BigGee wrote:That looked offside to me

I think it is ok to award a try like that in the benefit of the doubt.

It was close and at the end of the day, it was given

Three down, one to go

That's more like it - go for 4!

Just got to win the game now

Great jump by Tommy S again, he has played very well

Can't say we're doing it in style but four tries is four tries.

Don't forget you have got to win the game boys!!

We went to sleep there

Eejit wrote:Can't say we're doing it in style but four tries is four tries.

Who cares about style, its all about the result

Blues look dangerous when they go wide, we need another score to wrap this up

Straight out.

We could be on for an Edinburgh vs Glasgow 1/4 and that would be absolutely epic

We have just switched off completely

Are Glasgow about to do a Glasgow?

RDW_Scotland wrote:Are Glasgow about to do a Glasgow?

If roles were reversed I would be enjoying this too. As it happens I’m almost making a pillow fort.

Eejit wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Are Glasgow about to do a Glasgow?

If roles were reversed I would be enjoying this too. As it happens I’m almost making a pillow fort.

I'm not even enjoying it, I'm frustrated by Glasgow too!

George Horne - who else!!

Thank you Georgy. Think I can emerge from the pillow fort now.

RDW_Scotland wrote:I'm not even enjoying it, I'm frustrated by Glasgow too!

This should be printed on the big inflatable archway the players come through out the tunnel.

What a nervy difficult game. Our lack of confidence did not help, nor did the weather but we got there in the end.

Sometimes you have just got to grind it out

Can't imagine many will understand what Grant Stewart was saying there...

Hah, camera caught Ryan Wilson telling the squad they were going to f'ing do Saracens etc etc.

Well somewhat against expectations, it was the Glasgow pack that ground out this victory for us in a day when it was never going to be easy to win. It came at a bit of a cost though, as we lost Matt Fagerson and Callum Gibbins, neither of whom look like they will be playing next weekend, or any time soon.

Swinson, Harley, Rae, Kebble and Stewart all got well stuck in as did Ryan Wilson, who is the beating heart of that pack, despite a brain fart or two. Stewart was MoM and I would not really quibble about that, he is a young man on the rise and is progressing nicely despite a few mistakes here and there.

The backs did what they had to do, Seymour had an excellent game and showed that he is not going to be giving up his Scotland shirt this side of the WC to DG without a fight. Hogg made a few mistakes with his kicking, but stretched the legs a few times as well and looked at full fitness thankfully for Scotland.

Brandon Thompson had a solid game and sensibly did not go for anything risky in the conditions, that was just what was needed and probably why DR did not bring AH off the bench. Next week is a different game though and we will have to chance the arm, so I imagine AH will be back, Huw Jones as well probably.

George Horne provided the impact off the bench, as you might have imagined. Price just seems to hesitate a bit now, something he was not doing a few years ago. Horne should start next week for me.

Basically we are where we hoped we might be at the start of the campaign. We can go down to sarries with no real pressure, we may even know we are qualified before the game starts if Edinburgh can put Montpellier away on the Friday night.

I am looking forward to it, especially as I am going! Here is hoping it goes better than our last trip to Allianz

Edinburgh win next week would be outstanding, is a Glasgow vs Edinburgh quarter final a possibility?

I could be completely wrong here so apologies if so, but as I understand it:

Pool 1 it looks likely that Leinster will win the group and Toulouse will go through with either 21 or 22 points.

Pool 2 Either Munster or Exeter will go through. There won't be a runner up out this group.

Pool 3 Either Saracens or Glasgow will win the group. If Glasgow win both will go through, if Saracens win it will likely depend on Pool 5.

Pool 4 Racing should beat Scarlets winning the group. Ulster travel to Leicester knowing a win would likely put them through as runners up

Pool 5 Either Edinburgh or Montpellier win the group. If Edinburgh win Montpellier are out and the loser of Sarries vs Glasgow will likely go through. If both Glasgow and Edinburgh lose and finish on the same number of points I believe Edinburgh would go through on the merit of likely having a better points difference.

... I think. Again, please correct me if I'm wrong.

EDIT:
Therefore if it finished
Saracens
Racing
Leinster
Edinburgh
Munster
Ulster
Toulouse
Glasgow

We may end up with this
QF1. Saracens vs Glasgow
QF4. Racing vs Toulouse
QF3. Leinster vs Ulster
QF2. Edinburgh vs Munster

Sararcens or Glasgow vs Edinburgh or Munster
and
Leinster or Ulster vs Racing or Toulouse.

Tell you what though.

3 Oirish
2 jocks
2 frogs
1 Morris dancer

The welsh are awol. The English representation is one club only.

All hail the pro14

Personally it would be great to have an Edinburgh vs Glasgow quarter as

A: it would mean one Scottish team in the semi
B: that team is likely to be Edinburgh seeing we own Glasgow at the mo

Here’s a question for you. Are Edinburgh favourites against Montpellier?

Its a big ask, but the way the luvvies are playing at the moment who knows. I think Montpellier are still favourites though.

The luuvies could do us a big favour on Friday night and take the stress out of it for us!

Need Edinburgh to finish the job, but a Glasgow win as well would really do wonders for Scottish rugby. Two home quarter finals.

Not the best performance, left out several big names, lost two key back-rowers in first 8 minutes, started third-choice fly half and still did the job (as much as they messed it up against the Kings).

Hopefully the injuries are minor but Glasgow at least have Fusaro and Smith (underutilised in my opinion) to cover for Gibbins, and Ashe to come in for M Fagerson.

So the big question is

“Can Eejit bring himself to suppport Edinburgh this weekend or will he be looking for a shop that sells Montpellier jerseys?”

tigertattie wrote:So the big question is

“Can Eejit bring himself to suppport Edinburgh this weekend or will he be looking for a shop that sells Montpellier jerseys?”

Tough one.

Glasgow to beat Saracens bonus point win home quarter final will do me thank you very much.

Ideal situation would be a Glasgow vs Edinburgh semi-final guaranteeing a final place. Even better would be a all Scottish final.

Am I getting ahead of myself? Unlikely.

Christ, we are looking out of sorts at the moment. We managed to beat Cardiff before we beat ourselves (missus). Can't think we're going to compete with Robogym looking like that.

Gibbons being out makes me really very worried.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Doyle's on another planet - the scrum is going forward. very premature use it call!

There needs to be some clarification on this. Surely it can't be right that a scrum half is obliged to get the ball out of a scrum that's going forward just because the referee called for him to use it when the scrum was static.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Doyle's on another planet - the scrum is going forward. very premature use it call!

There needs to be some clarification on this. Surely it can't be right that a scrum half is obliged to get the ball out of a scrum that's going forward just because the referee called for him to use it when the scrum was static.

Especially when the scrum was so close to the line and would probably have crossed the line fine if the opposition had stayed straight and bound.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Doyle's on another planet - the scrum is going forward. very premature use it call!

There needs to be some clarification on this. Surely it can't be right that a scrum half is obliged to get the ball out of a scrum that's going forward just because the referee called for him to use it when the scrum was static.

it's annoying as the mandate from world rugby is to get the game moving. if a ball appears at the back of a static scrum the ref will shout use it right away. The mandate is to get the ball back into play before one of front row either collpases under pressure or pulls the scrum down on purpose. The object is to have the scrum as a way to restart the game. There is too much ambiguity around reffing the scrums so they are trying to remove as much of the oppertunity to boz things up by getting the scrums over and odne with ASAP.

We only have ourselves to blame. If you want a scrum reffered right everytime then you'd need to go all NFL and have multiple refs and at scrum time a ref with front row experiance needs to be on either side of the scrum.

Or you get front rowers to all agree to stop "the dark arts" or "cheating" as it's more acuratley called.

123456789. wrote:Ideal situation would be a Glasgow vs Edinburgh semi-final guaranteeing a final place. Even better would be a all Scottish final.

Am I getting ahead of myself? Unlikely.

Probably getting ahead of yourself a little, but I would be more than happy with an all Scottish final. Edinburgh are looking very strong but I question their big game experience as in knock-out rugby they’ve been known to stutter - maybe that’s different now, and it looks as if they have the players and coaches to beat most teams bar Leinster and Racing. Glasgow are good enough and have been for a while, but if they don’t beat Sarries then I don’t see them as being capable of doing much in the latter stages. Good luck Scots!

I’d back both of our teams at home to anyone except Leinster, away I think they’d struggle against every other team in contention for the last 8, aside from Ulster perhaps.