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November 30, 2018

Glasgow Warriors v Scarlets

Posted by Editor on November 30, 2018 05:17 PM | No comments | Print | E-mail author

Nick Grigg is the Warrior to Watch
Disco looks ahead to Glasgow's PRO14 meeting with Scarlets at Scotstoun on Saturday.

You can read more of 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 5.15 at Scotstoun Stadium
Saturday 1st December 2018
Live on Premier Sports 1 *

- Head to heads favour Scarlets, particularly in the backs with 3 key players back from Wales duty.
- Nick Grigg will play his 50th game for the club - and is also the Warrior to Watch.
- Scarlets have won 4 times at Scotstoun since 2012/13 - more than any other away side.

Teams

Glasgow Warriors

15 Ruaridh Jackson

14 Robbie Nairn
13 Nick Grigg
12 Stafford McDowall
11 Nikola Matawalu

10 Brandon Thomson
9 George Horne

1 Alex Allan
2 George Turner
3 D'arcy Rae
4 Tim Swinson
5 Scott Cummings
6 Matt Smith
7 Chris Fusaro (Captain)
8 Adam Ashe

Substitutes

16 Kevin Bryce
17 Oli Kebble
18 Siua Halanukonuka
19 Kiran McDonald
20 Tevita Tameilau
21 Nick Frisby
22 Patrick Kelly
23 Ratu Tagive

Scarlets

15 Johnny McNicholl

14 Tom Prydie
13 Jonathan Davies
12 Kieron Fonotia
11 Steff Evans

10 Rhys Patchell
9 Kieran Hardy

1 Rob Evans
2 Ryan Elias
3 Werner Kruger
4 Jake Ball
5 Steven Cummins
6 Will Boyde
7 Dan Davis
8 Uzair Cassiem

Substitutes

16 Dafydd Hughes
17 Wyn Jones
18 Simon Gardiner
19 Lewis Rawlins
20 Tom Phillips
21 Sam Hidalgo-Clyne
22 Paul Asquith
23 Clayton Blommetjies

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

Glasgow Greetings:
There's a home debut in the offing for Robbie Nairn. The powerful winger made his first appearance for the club in less than ideal circumstances against the Kings a couple of months back. A warm welcome to Scotstoun is in order so he knows things won't always be that bad!

Siua Halanukonuka and Ratu Tagive will make their first appearances of the campaign when they come off the bench. Siua is just back from injury and Ratu has spent a fair bit of time with Stirling County this season. Hopefully both men are ready to hit the ground running against the Scarlets.

Matchday Milestones:
Nick Grigg will make the 50th appearance of his Warriors' career on Saturday evening. Since making his first start early in the 2016/17 season Squiggs has played 49 out of the club's 67 fixtures. That's more than any other Glasgow back in that period.

Warrior to Watch:
It's that man Nick Grigg again. The pocket rocket's irresistible form during November makes him hard to ignore and there's a strong case for him being the most dangerous attacker in the league over the last month. During Glasgow's 3 games against Munster, Ospreys and Cardiff Blues he ran up these numbers:

- 1 try and 3 assists
- Over 100 metres per game with ball in hand, at 12.7m per carry (the average for centres in the PRO14 last season was 3.6m).
- Managed 9 clean breaks and 14 defenders beaten. He made a clean break for every 2.7 carries (the average for centres in the PRO14 last season was 1 CB every 12.1 carries).

Nick has quickly formed an effective partnership with outside centre Stafford McDowall and also seems to have a really good understanding with Nikola Matawalu. Hopefully Glasgow can see the benefit of those combinations again versus the Scarlets.

Glasgow at home to Scarlets in the PRO12/14 era:
3 wins
3 losses
0 Try BPs
2 Losing BPs
14 points out of a possible 30 (47%)
Scarlets are the only side to win 3 times at Scotstoun during the PRO12/14 regular season (plus they added a 4th win in the playoff semi-final 6 months ago...)

Previous match-up:

Key stat - try bonus points in the PRO14:

TRY BP IN LAST 30 GAMES
1 Glasgow - 20
2 Leinster - 16
3 Munster - 15
4 Cheetahs - 14
5 Scarlets - 13
AVERAGE - 10.6
6= Edinburgh - 10
6= Ulster - 10
8 Benetton - 9
9= Cardiff Blues - 8
9= Connacht - 8
9= Kings - 8
12= Ospreys - 7
12= Zebre - 7
14 Dragons - 4

So far under Dave Rennie, Glasgow have played 14 PRO14 regular season matches at home. They've picked up try BPs in all bar two of those fixtures. There was a dog of a game v Edinburgh (only enlivened by a mid-match fire alarm) with just a single late try for Lee Jones; and a fixture earlier this season when they scored 3 tries in the first half against Munster but couldn't complete the job in the 2nd period.

During the 2018/19 campaign the Warriors have picked up nearly all their points from tries (plus conversions) leading to 9 BPs. In 11 matches so far this season in the PRO14 and Champions Cup they have scored just 7 penalties (and 1 drop goal) accounting for 7% of the points they have scored.

However Scarlets are the only side in the PRO14 against whom Glasgow have never picked up a try BP at Scotstoun. In fact 2008 is the last time the Warriors managed 4 tries (or more) at home against the men from Llanelli. The visitors aren't averse to a try or two themselves but they've also shown they're capable of rolling up their sleeves and grinding it out when required. Conditions could well dictate which versions of these sides play on Saturday.

Officials:
Referee: Frank Murphy (IRFU, 18th Championship game)
AR1: Kieran Barry (IRFU)
AR1: Dunx McClement (SRU)
TMO: Charles Samson (SRU)

Mr Murphy's regular season record for 2017/18 in the PRO14:

Matches - 9 (all refs - 147)
Average penalty count - 19.4 per game (all refs - 19.0)
Home penalty percentage - 52% (all refs - 53%)
Average card count - 0.7 per game (all refs - 0.9)
Penalties per card - 29 (all refs - 22)

Only 2 referees (Warriors' fans' faves George Clancy and Ian Davies) doled out more penalties between cards last season. That probably means a little bit more freedom at areas like the breakdown before Mr Murphy escalates things. Can Glasgow take advantage on Saturday night?

After a hammering at the hands of the former Connacht scrum half when the Warriors played...er Connacht at the end of last season (15 pens, 2 sin bins and a penalty try in a pear tree) Glasgow got on much better with Mr Murphy earlier in the current campaign. 5 penalties conceded (to 11 by the Cheetahs) was a strong effort. There was still another yellow for Alex Dunbar but it was definitely a step in the right direction.

Against the side in the PRO14 who conceded the fewest penalties of all in 2017/18 it's important that the Warriors keep their noses clean to avoid handing the visitors a significant advantage.

* Other coverage:

Match re-runs on FreeSports:

- None

Highlights of all matches in Round 10:

- Premier Sports 1 - Sunday 2nd December at 7.00pm
- FreeSports - no highlights on FreeSports this week

It appears that re-runs of PRO14 matches, highlights and the preview show have dropped off FreeSports entirely...

Previous Matches with Scarlets
Saturday April 29 2023
Scarlets 17 35 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday April 14 2023
Glasgow Warriors 12 9 Scarlets Match Report
Saturday March 5 2022
Scarlets 35 10 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Sunday October 11 2020
Glasgow Warriors 20 7 Scarlets Match Report
Friday October 4 2019
Glasgow Warriors 21 25 Scarlets Match Report
Saturday December 1 2018
Glasgow Warriors 29 20 Scarlets Match Report
Friday May 18 2018
Glasgow Warriors 13 28 Scarlets Match Report
Saturday April 7 2018
Scarlets 26 8 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday February 10 2017
Glasgow Warriors 14 26 Scarlets Match Report
Saturday November 5 2016
Scarlets 27 3 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday April 16 2016
Scarlets 10 46 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday December 19 2015
Scarlets 6 9 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday December 12 2015
Glasgow Warriors 43 6 Scarlets Match Report
Saturday September 5 2015
Glasgow Warriors 10 16 Scarlets Match Report
Friday January 9 2015
Glasgow Warriors 22 7 Scarlets Match Report
Friday November 21 2014
Scarlets 19 9 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday March 22 2014
Glasgow Warriors 14 6 Scarlets Match Report
Saturday October 5 2013
Scarlets 12 17 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday April 12 2013
Scarlets 29 6 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday September 7 2012
Glasgow Warriors 13 18 Scarlets Match Report
Thursday February 9 2012
Glasgow Warriors 19 9 Llanelli Scarlets Match Report
Saturday January 7 2012
Llanelli Scarlets 16 14 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday April 22 2011
Glasgow Warriors 29 37 Llanelli Scarlets Match Report
Friday October 29 2010
Llanelli Scarlets 18 14 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday May 7 2010
Llanelli Scarlets 32 37 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Sunday September 13 2009
Glasgow Warriors 19 11 Llanelli Scarlets Match Report
Saturday April 4 2009
Llanelli Scarlets 21 38 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday September 26 2008
Glasgow Warriors 34 20 Llanelli Scarlets Match Report
Friday April 18 2008
Glasgow Warriors 25 23 Llanelli Scarlets Match Report
Friday February 15 2008
Llanelli Scarlets 30 7 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday February 16 2007
Glasgow Warriors 30 14 Llanelli Scarlets Match Report
Friday September 8 2006
Llanelli Scarlets 31 17 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday May 12 2006
Glasgow Warriors 17 10 Llanelli Scarlets Match Report
Sunday October 16 2005
Llanelli Scarlets 24 20 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday April 9 2005
Llanelli Scarlets 30 57 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Sunday December 12 2004
Llanelli Scarlets 38 22 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Sunday December 5 2004
Glasgow Warriors 26 29 Llanelli Scarlets Match Report
Friday November 19 2004
Glasgow Warriors 40 29 Llanelli Scarlets Match Report
Saturday May 1 2004
Llanelli Scarlets 36 26 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday November 28 2003
Glasgow Warriors 18 31 Llanelli Scarlets Match Report