Glasgow Warriors | Ulster v Glasgow Warriors
Share

Got an opinion?
Discuss this article in the comments section or register with the glasgowwarriors.com forum.

Search this site

February 17, 2017

Ulster v Glasgow Warriors

Posted by Editor on February 17, 2017 07:55 PM | No comments | Print | E-mail author

Sila Puafisi has a key role to play when Warriors take on Ulster
Warriors take on Ulster in Belfast on Saturday and Disco takes a look ahead to the PRO12 clash.

You can check out more of Disco's thoughts on Glasgow's pursuit of a second PRO12 title and European progress, as well as Scotland's international fortunes, at his excellent blog Top of the Moon.

KO 3.00 at Kingspan Stadium, Saturday 18th February 2017

Live on Sky

Team Talk

What a difference a year makes. These two sides met at the Kingspan on the 12th of February 2016 but only four Warriors who started that match last season (also during the Six Nations window) will do the same again in this fixture. Gregor Townsend has shaken things up, making seven changes to the side that lost to the Scarlets. The starting XV selected have only played 784 matches for the Warriors. Glasgow sides with less than 1,000 previous games behind them have a three wins (Dragons, Zebre, Edinburgh) and 5 losses record compared to nine wins and three losses (Munster x3) when the players combined have more than 1,000 appearances for the club.

Ulster

15 Louis Ludik

14 Tommy Bowe
13 Luke Marshall
12 Darren Cave
11 Craig Gilroy

10 Peter Nelson
9 Ruan Pienaar

1 Callum Black
2 John Andrew
3 Ricky Lutton
4 Peter Browne
5 Franco van der Merwe
6 Sean Reidy
7 Chris Henry (Captain)
8 Marcel Coetzee

Substitutes

16 Rob Herring
17 Andrew Warwick
18 Wiehahn Herbst
19 Kieran Treadwell
20 Robbie Diack
21 Paul Marshall
22 Jacob Stockdale
23 Jack Owens

Glasgow Warriors

15 Brandon Thomson

14 Lee Jones
13 Mark Bennett
12 Nick Grigg
11 Sean Lamont

10 Peter Horne
9 Henry Pyrgos (Captain)

1 Alex Allan
2 James Malcolm
3 Sila Puafisi
4 Brian Alainu'uese
5 Scott Cummings
6 Robert Harley
7 Simone Favaro
8 Adam Ashe

Substitutes

16 Corey Flynn
17 Jamie Bhatti
18 D'arcy Rae
19 Tjiuee Uanivi
20 Lewis Wynne
21 Grayson Hart
22 Richie Vernon
23 Rory Hughes

Head to Head:
Back 3 - ADV Ulster
Centres - ADV Ulster
Half Backs - ADV Glasgow
Front Row - ADV Glasgow
Second Row - EVEN
Back Row - ADV Ulster
Subs - EVEN

Glasgow Greetings:
It's Warriors debut number 18 for the season with Brandon Thomson becoming the 55th player used in 2016/17. With 2 more Western Province / Stormers players heading to Glasgow in the summer a nickname is surely required for this group. The Cape Town side are referred to as W.P. (pronounced "vee pee") so let's welcome the VeePeeWeegies..

Warriors One to Watch:
There's an extremely potent Ulster backline to deal with so winning the forward battle could go a long way in helping Glasgow to pick up a result in this fixture. If that's to be the case then Sila Puafisi will need to be a key contributor. Until his recent absence (due to a concussion) the big Tongan had played in 34 of 38 games since joining the club. He has been a remarkably consistent presence and will be the cornerstone of the effort in the scrum on Saturday. His efforts at clearing the breakdown in attack and protecting the gain line in defence will also be crucial to earning the Warriors a foothold in the game.

Toony's Track Record...

...against Ulster:

- 5 wins, 4 losses. 2 Try BPs. 2 Losing BPs. 24 points out of a possible 45 (53%).
- The loss at the Kingspan Stadium almost exactly a year ago was Glasgow's last defeat before embarking on a 9 match winning streak that took them to the playoffs. The team could do with a similar kind of run for the remainder of the 2016/17 campaign.

Last season's match-up:

8 - Defenders beaten by Craig Gilroy. All in the Ulster winger has bypassed 26 would be tacklers in his last 4 appearances against Glasgow. The absence of Charles Piutau will draw a lot of attention but the Irish winger, who's been released from the national squad after scoring a hat-trick against Italy, is an equally significant threat to the Warriors' ambitions.

48 - Tackles made by the Glasgow back row. It was a heavy duty workload for Harley, Favaro/Fusaro and Wilson with a lot of scrambling cover defence going on. The Warriors' 6, 7 and 8 need to be defending on the front foot, getting in the faces of the Ulster playmakers and disrupting them at every turn.

37 - Percentage of time spent in the Ulster half. After an early try there was a huge rearguard action from Glasgow. A lack of kicking options didn't assist with getting field position in opposition territory - Peter Horne and Brandon Thomson need a strong game in this respect to allow the Warriors to play in the right areas.

Home and Away:
Ulster last 6 in the PRO12 (H) - W W W L W W
Glasgow last 6 in the PRO12 (A) - L W W L W W

In this season's PRO12 Glasgow actually have a better record away from home (5 wins, 2 losses) than they do at Scotstoun (3 wins, 4 losses).

Officials:
Referee: Dan Jones (WRU, 4th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Wayne Davies (WRU), Paul Haycock (IRFU)
TMO: Time Hayes (WRU)

A Warriors (and Ulster) virgin this week in the shape of Mr Jones who has sin binned an Italian player in each of his first 3 fixtures as a PRO12 ref. Hopefully this isn't an omen for Simone Favaro! Glasgow need to maintain their recent run of good discipline with only 2 cards in their last 10 matches compared to 12 in the first 10 games of the season.

Previous Matches with Ulster
Saturday November 25 2023
Glasgow Warriors 33 20 Ulster Match Report
Saturday October 7 2023
Ulster 19 14 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday February 17 2023
Glasgow Warriors 17 11 Ulster Match Report
Friday September 24 2021
Ulster 35 29 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday February 19 2021
Glasgow Warriors 13 19 Ulster Match Report
Monday November 9 2020
Ulster 40 15 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday September 14 2019
Glasgow Warriors 36 33 Ulster Match Report
Saturday September 7 2019
Ulster 50 19 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday May 8 2020
Ulster P P Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday March 27 2020
Glasgow Warriors P P Ulster Match Report
Friday May 17 2019
Glasgow Warriors 50 20 Ulster Match Report
Friday April 5 2019
Glasgow Warriors 30 7 Ulster Match Report
Saturday April 21 2018
Ulster 36 15 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday March 2 2018
Ulster P P Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday February 18 2017
Ulster 37 17 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday September 23 2016
Glasgow Warriors 17 22 Ulster Match Report
Friday March 25 2016
Glasgow Warriors 27 17 Ulster Match Report
Friday February 12 2016
Ulster 13 10 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday May 22 2015
Glasgow Warriors 16 14 Ulster Match Report
Saturday May 16 2015
Glasgow Warriors 32 10 Ulster Match Report
Saturday October 11 2014
Ulster 29 9 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday April 18 2014
Glasgow Warriors 27 9 Ulster Match Report
Friday September 13 2013
Ulster 12 13 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday February 22 2013
Glasgow Warriors 20 14 Ulster Match Report
Friday January 11 2013
Ulster 23 6 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday October 19 2012
Glasgow Warriors 8 19 Ulster Match Report
Friday August 31 2012
Ulster 18 10 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday November 25 2011
Glasgow Warriors 17 9 Ulster Match Report
Friday September 2 2011
Ulster 28 14 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday March 25 2011
Glasgow Warriors 19 22 Ulster Match Report
Friday October 1 2010
Ulster 19 17 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday April 16 2010
Glasgow Warriors 25 18 Ulster Match Report
Friday December 4 2009
Ulster 13 25 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday April 17 2009
Glasgow Warriors 19 20 Ulster Match Report
Saturday March 7 2009
Ulster 12 0 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday May 3 2008
Ulster 24 35 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday November 2 2007
Glasgow Warriors 25 6 Ulster Match Report
Friday April 27 2007
Ulster 10 24 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday January 6 2007
Glasgow Warriors 8 19 Ulster Match Report
Saturday April 15 2006
Glasgow Warriors 18 27 Ulster Match Report
Saturday January 7 2006
Ulster 25 23 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday March 4 2005
Ulster 30 3 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday October 16 2004
Glasgow Warriors 34 20 Ulster Match Report
Friday February 20 2004
Glasgow Warriors 27 25 Ulster Match Report
Friday November 14 2003
Glasgow Warriors 13 20 Ulster Match Report
Friday September 12 2003
Ulster 33 6 Glasgow Warriors Match Report