Glasgow v Cardiff Blues Friday 23rd November

Glasgow Warriors v Cardiff Blues
Scotstoun Stadium
Glasgow

Friday 23rd November
KO 19.35

Live on Premier Sports


Well on the eve of the 4th AI game, it is also back to business in the league and the Blues travel up to Glasgow to see if they can avenge their home euro defeat by the high flying Warriors.

Both sides will be missing a few key players and so squad depth will really come into play for this game. Now that the Scotland side has been announced, we may have a better idea who might be back playing for Glasgow.

Glasgow gave the whole squad 10 days off after the Ospreys game, a chance to get freshened up a bit before going into a very intense part of the season. Some of the returning Scotland players may well be given a break as well, so they can gradually be re-introduced running up to the Euro games with Lyon in December.

I think we may see a side looking something like this:

Kebble
Turner
Rae
Cummings
Harley
Gibbons
Fusaro
Ashe
Frisbee
Thompson
McDowell
Grigg
Matawala
Jackson

Bhatti
Stewart
Nicol
Swinson (there have been pictures of him training with the squad)/McDonald if not
Smith
Price
Kelly
Nairn

Edit:

For some reason of absence, I managed to overlook Kebble on my first draft of the team!

Lacey is the perfect referee for Glasgow as he shows even less interest in the gate than many other refs do this season - and that's really saying something. Cardiff will struggle to get anything out of this game as they will likely be prevented from playing their turnover driven game.

BigGee, I know PhillBB has suggested Cardiff will get nothing from this game, however following your advised ommission of Kebble, you also appear to show that we can take on the Cardiff team with only 14 players.....

Missing a winger fella, who I would presume will be Rozza Hughes.
I also suspect that we will start with Price, as he will be itching to show what he can do.

Yes, looks like I was having another senior moment and forgot how to count.

We may also get Lee Jones back as well, who has not been overworked whilst away with Scotland.

I do love it when we have players called Jones in our team when we play Welsh teams, it must get very confusing for them!

Some of the returning Scotland players may get this week off, even if they have not played to much, they will then be back for the Scarlets game the following week when the rest get to put their feet up.

We will get back to full strength for the Lyon game.

Don't think BigGee will be far off with that team, and its pretty strong all things considered. Rennie really has brought along many of the fringe players and I don't think there is as big a drop in quality when the internationals go away as there has been in recent seasons. Very excited to see McDowall and Kelly again as I reckon they're going to become big players for us in the next few years.

I know a good number of Blues fans outside these boards and I have a lot of time for the their team and the way they're developing but I suspect Glasgow should win this on the merit of being just a little bit better team at the moment and not because of some mad conspiracy theories spouted by the deranged.

Niko Matawalu will become a Glasgow Warriors centurion against Cardiff Blues as rugby returns to Scotstoun tomorrow night and tickets are still available HERE.Niko Matawalu will make his 100th appearance for the club against Cardiff Blues


The flying Fijian is in his second spell with the club and has been a fans favourite since joining initially in 2012.

The 29-year-old has scored 34 tries in his 99 appearances for the club so far, including a hat-trick off the bench in his last outing against the Ospreys.

Matawalu will start in a back-line that also features three members of the Scotland squad that narrowly lost to South Africa last weekend.

Tommy Seymour starts on the opposite wing and Ali Price and Pete Horne combine at 9 and 10 respectively.

Fosroc Scottish Rugby Academy player Stafford McDowall impressed in his performances against Munster and Ospreys and retains his spot at inside centre, once again combining with Nick Grigg who was named Man of the Match at the Liberty Stadium.

Ruairdh Jackson has recovered from a hamstring injury picked up early against the Ospreys to start at full-back.

George Turner, Rob Harley, Adam Ashe and Matt Fagerson all return from Scotland camp to start in the pack.

Jamie Bhatti and D’Arcy Rae pack down either side of Turner in the front-row, while Kiran McDonald joins Harley in the engine room.

Callum Gibbins will captain the side from the openside.

On the bench, Tim Swinson has returned from injury to be involved for the first time this season.

Glasgow Warriors Head Coach Dave Rennie said: "We took 10 days off after Ospreys and everyone came back in in really good nick, we’ve had a number of personal bests in testing so we’re really happy.

“It’ll be a proud day for Niko (Matawalu) and his family making his 100th appearance and hopefully we'll see that bit of magic from him with ball in hand that we know he’s capable of.

“We’ve been on the road a lot and we’ve played pretty well, but we love playing at home and we’re looking forward to getting back in front of a Scotstoun crowd tomorrow night."

Glasgow Warriors team to play Cardiff Blues in the Guinness PRO14 at Scotstoun Stadium, Friday 23 November, kick-off 7.35pm - live on FreeSports. You can follow the game on Twitter @GlasgowWarriors. Glasgow Warriors appearances in brackets:

1. Jamie Bhatti (31)
2. George Turner (28)
3. D’Arcy Rae (49)
4. Rob Harley (193)
5. Kiran McDonald (13)
6. Adam Ashe (59)
7. Callum Gibbins (C) (24)
8. Matt Fagerson (33)

9. Ali Price (63)
10. Pete Horne (146)
11. Niko Matawalu (99)
12. Stafford McDowall (3)
13. Nick Grigg (48)
14. Tommy Seymour (120)
15. Ruaridh Jackson (142)

Replacements

16. Grant Stewart (10)
17. Kevin Bryce (14)
18. Petrus du Plessis (3)
19. Tim Swinson (112)
20. Matt Smith (20)
21. Nick Frisby (4)
22. Brandon Thomson (13)
23. Rory Hughes (38)

Unavailable players: Scott Cummings (thigh), Zander Fagerson (ankle), Chris Fusaro (shoulder), Siua Halanukonuka (foot), Sam Johnson (knee), Lee Jones (knee), Oli Kebble (back).

Alex Allan (Scotland), Fraser Brown (Scotland), Alex Dunbar (Scotland), Jonny Gray (Scotland), Adam Hastings (Scotland), Stuart Hogg (Scotland), George Horne (Scotland), Huw Jones (Scotland), Greg Peterson (USA), Tevita Tameilau (USA), DTH van der Merwe (Canada), Ryan Wilson (Scotland).

Pretty strong side for Glasgow.

Seymour and Horne straight back into the side, which is a little bit surprising, they are going to have to get a rest at some point between now and the Lyon games and there will be others needing it next weekend as well. Still I expect there is a plan of some sorts there. I would imagine they will be subbed fairly early on if we are doing ok.

Tim Swinson gets back as well, just in time for the serious stuff to begin.

No LH replacement on the bench, Byrce is the cover though I can't ever remember him playing there. Bhatti better get ready for a long afternoon!

Cardiff Blues: Tom Williams; Aled Summerhill, Garyn Smith, Willis Halaholo, Jason Harries; Jarrod Evans, Lloyd Williams (capt); Brad Thyer, Kristian Dacey, Keiron Assiratti, George Earle, Seb Davies, Josh Turnbull, Olly Robinson, Nick Williams

Replacements: Liam Belcher, Rhys Carré, Scott Andrews, James Down, Sion Bennett, Lewis Jones, Steven Shingler, Harri Millard

Anything other than a 5-0 home points victory will be a hell of an achievement by Cardiff.

Well, considering it's November and the squad is Toonie depleted that is a promising 23.

Actually, apart from the second row where Ickle Jonny is first choice, 10 where Hastings is claiming squatter's rights and 12 where Dunbar, Johnson and the ScottyCrotty are missing most of these players could argue the case for being first team players rather than squad members.


I just hope we're well ahead before FriskyFrisby comes on: if we are then he might just relax enough to show us what he can do, but obviously not in a Southern Kings Car Crash sort of way.


I was about to comment on MadMata becoming a Centurion but tonight will be BBB's 194th cap, the man will soon become a DOUBLE CENTURION Beggars all belief. BBB will doubtless mark that occasion by flattening an opposing player. Just for a change.

Well Glasgow score through Adam Ashe after a howler of a miss from Ali Price, who only had to slide in!

Glasgow playing well

and Niko shows how it is done, side step then slides in

Fantastic try

Ali Price is having a mare, just butchered another certain try!

Ali Price throwing another try away!

What a try!!

Now that was a nice try!

Glasgow go coast to coast for a Gibbins try, quick tap from Price then great play from Mc Dowell

Blues looking very pedestrian, they could get a shellacking here if they are not careful

and another beauty for the bonus point!

Grigg made the sensible decision not to pass to Ali Price, Tommy S knows how to run them in

You get the feeling it is not Cardiff's day!

What a great half from the Warriors though, sparkling stuff

Glasgow doing well despite Price's best efforts to throw things away

Niko putting his hand up for motm with a try, a turnover then a try saving tackle

I thought that benefit of the doubt it was probably a try, but fair play to Niko he did superbly there.

Its all going our way but this really is a horrible performance from the Blues.

Tommy Seymour work is done, gets pulled at HT

Horne won't be to far behind him

We were lucky not getting a yellow there, we are still on final warning

Good vision from Ali Price setting up that try. He's not has his best game in a Glasgow shirt but fair play.

On an aside, when did Scotstoun get standing tickets and is it any good?

Rory Hughes off only 10 mins after he came on, got a try in the interim

He has no luck with injuries either

Lol. Niko.

Niko raeds a telegraphed pass and goes end to end with the intercept

That is the game and a MoM for Niko

Niko.......

Restarts

Know we will see if Bryce can play LH as well as hooker and TH

He is clearly going for the versatility option

Niko's been on the helium.

Well another decent 5 points at home, it was pretty easy in the end.

Blues played better in the second half but they were shocking in the first and the game was lost by half time, I bet they got some bollocking at HT from the coaching team, they seem to be making something of a speciality of slow starts

Scarlets are coming to town next weekend, that will be another challenge.

Rory Hughes looked like he has done his shoulder again, he really has had no luck

We shouldn't do ourselves down. It wasn't neccessarily the Blues being poor in the first half, but Glasgow being untouchable.
Great showing from MacDowell, great young prospect. Grigg great in attack, but his defence is very poor at times.
Rhuraidh Jackson was excellent too, some really sublime handling skills. He is very good at Pro14.
I thought that the pack were very dominant, decisive and quick in the first half, but maybe ran out of steam in the second. This did seem to coincide with George Turner going off though? Harley seemed quiet, but that was probably because he was ankle deep in heavy work and dark arts.
Great game to watch. Bring on the Scarlets. We owe them a good performance after last season's play off.

Anglobraveheart wrote:We shouldn't do ourselves down. It wasn't neccessarily the Blues being poor in the first half, but Glasgow being untouchable.
Great showing from MacDowell, great young prospect. Grigg great in attack, but his defence is very poor at times.
Rhuraidh Jackson was excellent too, some really sublime handling skills. He is very good at Pro14.
I thought that the pack were very dominant, decisive and quick in the first half, but maybe ran out of steam in the second. This did seem to coincide with George Turner going off though? Harley seemed quiet, but that was probably because he was ankle deep in heavy work and dark arts.
Great game to watch. Bring on the Scarlets. We owe them a good performance after last season's play off.

Got to love big Dave though, his team have just comfortably beat conference rivals and looking good doing it and he's giving it the second half performance is absolutely not acceptable in the post-match chat. You get the feeling he'll have them out doing laps on Monday afternoon to make up for it!

Monday?
I think it will be at 6am tomorrow!

He has a fair point though. The drop off of energy from first to second half was very evident. Seems like a pace thing. In other games we gave had a sleepy first half, then stepped it up second.

As expected, although that first half performance was shameful.