You can read more of Disco's thoughts on Glasgow's URC and European campaigns, Scotland's international fortunes, and much, much more at his excellent blog On Top of the Moon.
KO 7.35 at Scotstoun Stadium
Saturday 18th November 2023
Live on Viaplay Sports 2
- Across the starting lineups, 25 of the 30 players are full capped internationals (11 for the home side and 14 for the visitors).
- With just five returning starters for Glasgow and two for Benetton, there's probably not too much that can be read into these sides' most recent encounter - a 37-0 win for the Warriors at Scotstoun last October.
- There have been 12 different try scorers for Glasgow in their opening four games of the season. Johnny Matthews is the only player with more than a single try to his name - he's bagged five!
- Last Scotland scrum half standing George Horne is the Warrior to Watch.
Teams
15 J. McKay (29)
14 S. CANCELLIERE (28)
13 S. TUIPULOTU (38)
12 S. MCDOWALL (c) (61)
11 K. ROWE (3)
10 T. Jordan (28)
9 G. HORNE (102)
1 J. BHATTI (91)
2 G. TURNER (91)
3 L. SORDONI (19)
4 S. Manjezi (12)
5 R. GRAY (104)
6 M. FAGERSON (97)
7 T. Gordon (66)
8 S. VAILANU (23)
Substitutes
16 J. MATTHEWS (54)
17 A. DELL (6)
18 E. PIERETTO (32)
19 G. PETERSON (37)
20 M. Wiliamson (0)
21 A. Miller (17)
22 S. Kennedy (25)
23 R. THOMPSON (39)
15 G. DA RE (10)
14 M. Watson (15)
13 I. BREX (72)
12 M. ZANON (69)
11 P. ODOGWU (1)
10 T. ALBORNOZ (37)
9 A. GARBISI (32)
1 I. NEMER (42)
2 G. LUCCHESI (35)
3 S. FERRARI (97)
4 N. CANNONE (63)
5 F. RUZZA (105)
6 S. NEGRI (73)
7 M. LAMARO (c) (55)
8 T. HALAFIHI (59)
Substitutes
16 B. Bernasconi (7)
17 M. Spagnolo (3)
18 T. PASQUALI (120)
19 G. Koegelenberg (2)
20 G. PETTINELI (72)
21 H. TIME-STOWERS (16)
22 D. Duvenage (92)
23 J. UMAGA (20)
(players in CAPITALS are full internationals; figures in brackets are previous appearances for Glasgow Warriors or Benetton)
Head to Head:
Back 3 - EVEN
Centres - ADV Glasgow Warriora
Half Backs - EVEN
Front Row - ADV Benetton
Second Row - ADV Benetton
Back row - ADV Glasgow Warriors
Subs - EVEN
Glasgow Greetings:
Giant lock, Max Williamson, is in line to make his debut from the bench, just over a year on from when his u20s teammate, Alex Samuel, took his bow against the same opposition.
There will be first appearances of the season for both George Turner and Ross Thompson. The latter of that duo only managed two matches during the 2022/23 campaign and this will be his first outing at Scotstoun since a game against Zebre 597 days ago.
Warrior to Watch
Less than a fortnight night ago, the Warriors had three of Scotland's top four scrum halves in their squad. Fast forward to today and George Horne is the last of that trio still standing with Ali Price away on loan and Jamie Dobie out injured for 3 months.
It has been more than two and a half years (Saturday will be the 64th match) since anyone outside that triumvirate started in the number 9 jersey for Glasgow.
George Horne - 28 starts
Ali Price - 25 starts
Jamie Dobie - 11 starts
Add in his goal kicking and what this all means is that wee Dod might just be the single most important player at Scotstoun right now. And that's even before referencing his try scoring - 41 and counting, closing in fast on Niko;a Matawalu and Tommy Seymour in the club's top three scorers of all time.
Glasgow at home to Benetton in the PRO12/PRO14/URC era:
- 9 wins
- 1 loss
- 6 try BPs
- losing BP
- 43 points out of a possible 50 (86%)
Previous match-up v Benetton at Scotstoun:
Officials:
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU, 89th league game)
AR1: Finlay Brown (SRU)
AR2: Sam O'Neil (SRU)
TMO: Mark Patton (IRFU)
Mr Brace's regular season record for 2022/23:
Matches - 15
Average penalty count - 25.3 per game
Home side penalties conceded percentage - 49.7%
Average card count - 2.1 per game
Penalties per card - 12.2
This will be Mr Brace's 17th game in charge of the Warriors and also the Irish whistler's 7th trip to Scotstoun. Matches by season:
2015/16 - 1
2016/17 - 3
2017/18 - 2
2018/19 - 3
2019/20 - 0
2020/21 - 1
2021/22 - 4
2022/23 - 2
Only a handful of officials have taken charge of more Glasgow games in the pro era - although he has a way to go to catch George Clancy who refereed no fewer than 45 Warriors' fixtures.