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April 02, 2021

Montpellier v Glasgow Warriors

Posted by Editor on April 2, 2021 12:01 PM | No comments | Print | E-mail author

Oli Kebble is the Warrior to Watch
Disco turns his attention to Glasgow's Challenge Cup clash with Montpellier.

You can read more of Disco's thoughts on Glasgow's PRO14 and European campaigns, Scotland's international fortunes, and much, much more at his excellent blog On Top of the Moon.

KO 8.00pm
GGL Stadium
Friday 2nd April 2021
Live on BT Sport ESPN

- Glasgow have a decent record away to Montpellier with 2 wins and a draw in European competition. They did lose the most recent meeting between these two sides on French soil however, with Montpellier running out 36-26 winners in December 2017.
- Just 13 of the 46 players return from that game in 2017:
Montpellier - Jan Serfontein, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, Bismarck du Plessis and Mohamed Haouas.
Glasgow - Nick Grigg, Lee Jones, Ali Price, Fraser Brown, Zander Fagerson, Ryan Wilson, George Horne and Nikola Matawalu.
- Giant human being, Oli Kebble, is the Warrior to Watch.

Teams

Montpellier

15 Anthony Bouthier

14 Johannes Goosen
13 Arthur Vincent
12 Jan Serfontein
11 Vincent Rattez

10 Alex Lozowski
9 Cobus Reinach

1 Enzo Forletta
2 Guilhem Guirado
3 Mohamed Haouas
4 Florian Verhaeghe
5 Bastien Chalureau
6 Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg
7 Yacouba Camara
8 Alexander Becognee

Substitutes

16 Bismarck Du Plessis
17 Robert Rodgers
18 Titi Lamositele
19 Martin Devergie
20 Caleb Timu
21 Jules Danglot
22 Yvan Reilhac
23 Julien Tisseron

Glasgow Warriors

15 Huw Jones

14 Rufus McLean
13 Nick Grigg
12 Sam Johnson
11 Lee Jones

10 Adam Hastings
9 Ali Price

1 Oli Kebble
2 Fraser Brown
3 Zander Fagerson
4 Richie Gray
5 Robert Harley
6 Fotu Lokotui
7 Tom Gordon
8 Ryan Wilson (Captain)

Substitutes

16 George Turner
17 Dylan Evans
18 Enrique Pieretto
19 Leone Nakarawa
20 TJ Ioane
21 George Horne
22 Ross Thompson
23 Nikola Matawalu

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

Glasgow Greetings:
Warriors' fans have had to waits since the 16th of April to see George Turner, Zander Fagerson and Ali Price in action for the club. Alongside the other Scotland players, there's a real hope they can bring some of the positivity from the Six Nations' campaign and that they can hit the ground running as they return to Glasgow duty.

Milestones:
Adam Hastings made his debut in the opening fixture of the Dave Rennie era (a very soggy night away to Connacht). He'll be making his 50th Warriors' appearance when he runs out at 10 against Montpellier. The former Bath man is just 8 points short of 400 for the club and he will need to be an influential figure if the Warriors are to progress to the quarter finals.

Warrior to Watch:
Glasgow will have both their first choice props starting together on Friday night - just the third time that has happened this season. Loosehead, Oli Kebble has become a central figure in the Warriors' pack since joining the club at the start of the 2017/18 season.

The powerful prop had the best rate of defenders beaten of any Glasgow forward last season (one every 6.6 carries). Against a stuffy French side, used to the arm wrestle up front that's prevalent in the Top 14, that ability to break tackles at close quarters will be vital if the Warriors are to deliver front foot ball to the backs.

Glasgow Warriors v Montpellier - previous results
Montpellier 11 - 30 Glasgow Warriors (Challenge Cup 2003/04 1st leg)
Glasgow Warriors 38 - 13 Montpellier (Challenge Cup 2003/04 2nd leg)
Glasgow Warriors 20 - 15 Montpellier (Heineken Cup 2011/12)
Montpellier 13 - 13 Glasgow Warriors (Heineken Cup 2011/12)
Montpellier 13 - 15 Glasgow Warriors (Heineken Cup 2014/15)
Glasgow Warriors 21 - 10 Montpellier (Heineken Cup 2014/15)
Glasgow Warriors 22 - 29 Montpellier (Heineken Cup 2017/18)
Montpellier 36 - 26 Glasgow Warriors (Heineken Cup 2017/18)

Previous match-up:

Officials:
Referee: Karl Dickson (England)
AR1: Maxime Chalon (France)
AR2: Vincent Blasco Basque (France)
TMO: Ian Tempest (England)

Mr Dickson will take charge of his first ever Warriors' fixture - or will he? He is down in the EPCR record books as the referee for Glasgow's 0-28 defeat to Lyon in Round 2 of this season's Champions Cup. The minor wrinkle being of course that the game was never played and was awarded (somewhat controversially) as a walkover to the French side.

So, a first proper game for the former Harlequins scrum half (it's nearly always scrum halves isn't it?) His average penalty count of 21.0 per game and yellow card count of 1.0 per game are fairly typical. Remarkably he does appear to have only issued one red card in his top level career so far. Of course, in his role as TMO, he was the man who tried to talk Matthew Carley down from sending off Zander Fagerson in the Scotland v Wales game a few weeks back. The Warriors would be wise to mind their discipline though and not assume the ref will always be so lenient...

Additional referee stats from the excellent resources at cardiffrfcfans.com

Previous Matches with Montpellier
Friday April 2 2021
Montpellier 26 21 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday December 16 2017
Montpellier 36 26 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Friday December 8 2017
Glasgow Warriors 22 29 Montpellier Match Report
Sunday January 18 2015
Glasgow Warriors 21 10 Montpellier Match Report
Saturday October 25 2014
Montpellier 13 15 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Saturday December 17 2011
Montpellier Hérault 13 13 Glasgow Warriors Match Report
Sunday December 11 2011
Glasgow Warriors 20 15 Montpellier Hérault Match Report
Friday December 12 2003
Glasgow Warriors 38 13 Montpellier Match Report
Saturday December 6 2003
Montpellier 11 30 Glasgow Warriors Match Report