1
Franco Smith makes 7 changes to Glasgow line-up for visit of Zebre
By PA
Franco Smith has continued rotating his Glasgow side for Friday’s visit of Zebre as he bids to ensure his squad is primed for their upcoming trip to South Africa.
The Warriors coach has made seven changes to the XV that started last weekend’s United Rugby Championship victory away to Cardiff, with Scotland internationals Sione Tuipulotu, Rory Sutherland and Matt Fagerson among those to miss out.
Smith is keen to ensure as many of his players as possible have game time under their belts ahead of their formidable South African double-header against Sharks and Stormers.
“Obviously, it’s important to have a good performance against Zebre to take some continuity (to South Africa),” Smith said. “We’ve made enough changes, 14 in the first game against Ulster that didn’t play in the warm-up games, then it was six changes against Benetton, and then nine last week, and there’s seven this week.
“It’s important to get the whole squad some minutes under their belt and get them best prepared so that we take a team that’s rugby ready on a difficult tour.”
It was announced last week that Richie Gray will be leaving the club in November to head abroad but he has not been selected for tomorrow’s match, meaning the recent Benetton game – played before news of his departure became public – will go down as his last at home for Glasgow.
“He’s a big man, older guy, needs to be managed as well,” said Smith of his absence this weekend. “He knew already that the game against Benetton was his last game at Scotstoun, but he will be touring with us to South Africa.”
Captain Kyle Steyn misses out with a foot injury but Smith expects him to be fit to go to South Africa. The head coach hopes to see his defending champions make it three wins from four URC matches this weekend.
“It’s a good start, but a lot of our processes are not functioning as good as they should be yet,” said Smith. “We’ve got to just focus and concentrate on what we need to get right from a process perspective. The win is important, but for us to continue winning, we need to get better at what we do.”
Glasgow Warriors: Kyle Rowe, Jamie Dobie, Huw Jones, Stafford McDowall (CAPT), Facundo Cordero, Adam Hastings, George Horne, Jamie Bhatti, Johnny Matthews, Zander Fagerson, Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings, Euan Ferrie, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey
Replacements: Grant Stewart, Nathan McBeth, Patrick Schickerling, Alex Samuel, Max Williamson, Henco Venter, Ben Afshar, Tom Jordan
Zebre Parma: Geronimo Prisciantelli, Jacopo Trulla, Fetuli Paea, Scott Gregory, Simone Gesi, Giacomo Da Re, Gonzalo Garcia, Danilo Fischetti (CAPT), Giampietro Ribaldi, Matteo Nocera, Leonard Krumov, Andrea Zambonin, Giacomo Ferrari, Luca Andreani, Giovanni Licata
Replacements: Luca Bigi, Samuele Taddei, Ion Neculai, Matteo Canali, Iacopo Bianchi, Alessandro Fusco, Damiano Mazza, Ben Cambriani
Trending on RugbyPass
2
NZ age of dominance is all but over
3
Can New Zealand beat the world's best without Barrett at 10?
4
Leicester Tigers want Sam Costelow back
5
Latest Comments
re-read my comments.
Rassie is giving many more debuts this year than at any previous point since 2019. To whatever extent he is rewarding form now, he rewarded it less before.
Marcell Coetzee was in great form in 2020-21 but wasn't picked. Senatla, Zas, and Grobbelaar were in 2021-22. Daniel du Plessis in 2022-23. Akker van der Merwe and Cameron Hanekom in 2023-24.
Go to commentsOk, so let’s pick the bones out of that steaming pile of opinion!
Firstly I didn’t state that the French psyche has “been impacted by invasion and how that has lead to French teams not touring overseas”. For the record, my opinion comments on the French rugby team touring were “they have close to zero interest in touring, never have and never will. It’s embedded in their dna. It’s just the way they see the world, rightly or wrongly.” and “France just don’t have the traditions of touring and therefore don’t place the same importance to it as most other nations, so this compromise is sensible for them”. Given your propensity to make noise of little to no value with your comments, I guess it’s not too surprising that you have misinterpreted my comments and entirely misquoted me.
Secondly I note that following your earlier baseless assertion that I had levelled personal insults in your direction, you have in fact resorted to exactly this behaviour in your limited and stilted reply above.
Thirdly you have absolutely no idea what my connections are to France and what level of insight I possess regarding French culture, yet still you feel qualified to judge. A textbook example in assuming your presumed knowledge is superior I’d say!
Fourthly you have failed, yet again, to provide ANY opinion on the salient points of the rugby discussion stream. Not at all surprising by this stage but worth highlighting nonetheless.
And finally, your continued stream of noise is tedious, repetitive and entirely unimaginative. Is that really the best you can do???
Go to comments