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November 25, 2017

Ospreys v Glasgow Warriors

Posted by Editor on November 25, 2017 09:37 AM | No comments | Print | E-mail author

Scott Cummings is the Warrior to Watch
Disco looks ahead to Glasgow's PRO14 trip to Swansea to take on Ospreys.

You can read Disco's thoughts on Glasgow's pursuit of the PRO14 title and European progress, as well as Scotland's international fortunes, at his excellent blog Top of the Moon.

KO 1.00 at Liberty Stadium, Sunday 26th February
No live TV coverage

Team Talk
Sometimes it's easy being a coach. Take this week's Glasgow Warriors' selection by Dave Rennie - there are only 24 members of the full-time squad who are available this week so essentially the side just picked itself!

Ospreys and Glasgow have already met this season, in Round 2, with the Warriors running out fairly comfortable winners. Only 3 of this Sunday's startingXV for Glasgow also started that match - due largely to the 25 players missing on international duty or injured. Ospreys are short of 19 players themselves but will at least have 10 of the side that started the game at Scotstoun backing up at the Liberty Stadium.

The Warriors' matchday 23 has the fewest previous appearances for the club of any selection this season - 782 (next lowest 968 v Connacht)
The fewest capped internationals -10 (next lowest 12 v Leinster)
The most non-Scottish qualified players - 7 (averaging 4 this season)
This will be the biggest pack Glasgow have fielded in this campaign at 912kg boosted in no small part by the 127kg of Samuela Vunisa in the back row.

Ospreys

15 Dan Evans

14 Hanno Dirksen
13 Joe Thomas
12 Ashley Beck
11 Jeff Hassler

10 Sam Davies
9 Tom Habberfield

1 Paul James (Captain)
2 Sam Parry
3 Dmitri Arhip
4 Lloyd Ashley
5 Bradley Davies
6 Olly Cracknell
7 Guy Mercer
8 James King

Substitutes

16 Scott Baldwin
17 Gareth Thomas
18 Ma'afu Fia
19 Rob McCusker
20 Will Jones
21 Reuben Morgan-Williams
22 James Hook
23 Dafydd Howells

Glasgow Warriors

15 Ruaridh Jackson

14 Lelia Masaga
13 Nick Grigg
12 Sam Johnson
11 Leonardo Sarto

10 Adam Hastings
9 George Horne

1 Alex Allan
2 Pat MacArthur
3 D'arcy Rae
4 Kiran McDonald
5 Scott Cummings
6 Callum Gibbins (Captain)
7 Matt Smith
8 Samuela Vunisa

Substitutes

16 George Turner
17 Ryan Grant
18 Siua Halanukonuka
19 Hamilton Burr
20 Lewis Wynne
21 Kaleem Barreto
22 Brandon Thomson
23 Lee Jones

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

Glasgow Greetings:
Kiran McDonald and Samuela Vunisa will play their first ever games for the Warriors. There could be as many as 3 further debuts among the replacements with new boys Siua Halanukonuka, Hamilton Burr and Kaleem Barreto set to feature. If the bench is cleared that will take the number of players used so far in the Rennie-sance era to 48.

Where Are Warriors, Where Are Warriors?
Of the 50 full-time and partnership contract players, 21 are on duty at the Liberty Stadium (with 2 Academy players making up the matchday squad). Of the remaining 29:

12 are with Scotland in Edinburgh
10 are injured
4 are fit but not selected (although it's likely at least 3 are travelling to Wales as cover)
1 is in Tbilisi with the USA
1 is in Narbonne with Fiji
1 is preparing to fly out to Dubai for the first leg of the 7s World Series

Warriors One to Watch:
On Top Of The Moon has previously tipped Scott Cummings to have a big season (here) and the young lock already has more minutes under his belt than in his previous two campaigns with Glasgow. He's establishing himself as the premier lineout operator in the side and has 6 of the club's 8 steals on the opposition throw.

Spending time in camp with the Scotland squad with 3 very different second rows in Jonny Gray, Ben Toolis and Grant Gilchrist will have been a useful experience for him as he establishes his own strengths and figures out how to keep improving. With rumours of Gray the younger's potential departure to Bristol there could be an even bigger role in the offing for Scott at the Warriors for next season. Games like this are a chance for him to show the leadership he can bring to the team and demonstrate that he will be ready for the next step up.

Ospreys v Glasgow fixture in the PRO12 era

3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses
No Bonus Points
14 points out of a possible 30 (47%)
Glasgow only managed 1 away win in the last 3 seasons against the other perennial members of the PRO12's top 6 (Leinster, Munster, Ospreys, Scarlets, Ulster)

Last season's match-up:

0 - League points picked up - the fifth of five games in the international windows where the club drew a blank, fatally undermining any pursuit of a playoff spot. As ever these sorts of games arrive laden with opportunities for players to stake a claim or to move up the pecking order. The individuals need to combine to provide a cohesive team performance and compete for the win if they want to really demonstrate their credentials to the coaching staff.

20 - Carries by Brian Alainu'uese. Big Bri's workrate was one of the small number of highlights from this game, arriving during a spell where he really seemed to be finding his feet at the club. Dave Rennie will be hoping that Samuela Vunisa will take on a lot of the carrying duties but the other big men, Scott Cummings and Kiran McDonald need to get involved as well to spread the workload.

255 - Tackles made by the Ospreys. Glasgow dominated territory and possession; created far more rucks than their opponents and threw more than twice as many passes (257 v 118) but ultimately did little with the ball that they had. The Warriors need to be far more efficient with any possession that's available this time around.

Home and Away:
Ospreys last 6 in the PRO12/14 (H) - L W W L L W
Glasgow last 6 in the PRO12/14 (A) - L L L W W W

Match officials:
Referee: Ian Davies (WRU, 68th competition game)
AR1: Gareth John (WRU)
AR2: Elgin Williams (WRU)
TMO: Non-televised game

Mr Davies' record in Warriors' fixtures over the past 4 seasons:

Matches - 13 (118 for all refs)
Average penalty count - 18.3 (19.1 all refs)
Average penalties for Glasgow - 8.8 (9.6 all refs)
Average penalties against Glasgow - 9.5 (9.5 all refs)
Yellow cards - 21 + 3 red cards (1.0 per game all refs)

It's been more than 3 years since Glasgow and Mr Davies managed to get through a game without rubbing each other up the wrong way. In the 10 Warriors' matches the Welsh whistler has taken charge of since then he's issued 10 yellow and 2 red cards to Glasgow players along with awarding 3 penalty tries against the club. There can be only one thought in mind when it comes to discipline on Sunday - best behaviour throughout!

2014/15
Zebre (H) - 2 yellow cards
Ulster (H) - yellow card

2015/16
Connacht (H) - yellow card, penalty try
Leinster (A) - 2 yellow cards, penalty try
Zebre (A) - yellow card
Connacht (A) - red card

2016/17
Connacht (A) - yellow card
Ulster (H) - yellow card, penalty try
Edinburgh (A) - yellow card
Connacht (H) - red card

Previous Matches with Ospreys
Saturday November 11 2023
Ospreys 23 31 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday October 1 2022
Ospreys 32 17 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday January 8 2022
Glasgow Warriors 38 19 Ospreys Match Report
Friday March 12 2021
Glasgow Warriors 30 25 Ospreys Match Report
Saturday October 24 2020
Ospreys 23 15 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday March 21 2020
Ospreys P P Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday May 15 2020
Glasgow Warriors P P Ospreys Match Report
Friday January 25 2019
Glasgow Warriors 9 3 Ospreys Match Report
Friday November 2 2018
Ospreys 20 29 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Sunday November 26 2017
Ospreys 6 47 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday September 9 2017
Glasgow Warriors 31 10 Ospreys Match Report
Sunday February 26 2017
Ospreys 26 15 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday November 25 2016
Glasgow Warriors 5 22 Ospreys Match Report
Sunday January 31 2016
Ospreys 20 20 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Sunday November 1 2015
Glasgow Warriors 31 19 Ospreys Match Report
Friday May 8 2015
Ospreys 21 10 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday February 21 2015
Glasgow Warriors 19 16 Ospreys Match Report
Friday March 28 2014
Glasgow Warriors 11 9 Ospreys Match Report
Friday November 29 2013
Ospreys 16 28 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday April 19 2013
Glasgow Warriors 35 17 Ospreys Match Report
Friday September 14 2012
Ospreys 10 28 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday March 2 2012
Ospreys 20 26 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday October 28 2011
Glasgow Warriors 28 17 Ospreys Match Report
Saturday March 5 2011
Ospreys 37 6 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Sunday October 24 2010
Glasgow Warriors 31 23 Ospreys Match Report
Friday May 14 2010
Ospreys 20 5 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday October 30 2009
Ospreys 9 9 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday September 25 2009
Glasgow Warriors 16 26 Ospreys Match Report
Sunday May 10 2009
The Ospreys 34 23 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday September 12 2008
Glasgow Warriors 18 21 The Ospreys Match Report
Friday February 29 2008
Glasgow Warriors 9 6 Ospreys Match Report
Sunday September 30 2007
Ospreys 37 23 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday May 4 2007
Glasgow Warriors 29 26 Ospreys Match Report
Friday October 13 2006
Ospreys 26 9 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday April 8 2006
Ospreys 16 13 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday January 27 2006
Glasgow Warriors 8 22 Ospreys Match Report
Saturday January 29 2005
Glasgow Warriors 27 27 The Ospreys Match Report
Saturday October 2 2004
The Ospreys 40 17 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday May 14 2004
Glasgow Warriors 34 31 Ospreys Match Report
Friday February 6 2004
Ospreys 33 11 Glasgow Warriors Match Report