Glasgow Warriors look to 'natural born leader' as they lose their super-strength
Bulls head to Scotland with Springbok-laden team
Glasgow Warriors trained at Murrayfield on Thursday to get a feel for the stadium which is to be their home this weekend - and possibly for longer.
If Franco Smith’s team can beat the Bulls in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship semi-final they will remain at the national stadium for the final on June 20.
It’s quite an incentive but Smith isn’t thinking that far ahead, not with such a formidable obstacle still to overcome. The Bulls have selected 11 South African internationals in their starting side for the match in Edinburgh and there are another five on the bench. But the Warriors will fight fire with fire and, coincidentally, have 11 Scotland internationals in their XV.
Glasgow have already beaten the Bulls twice this season but both of those matches were at Scotstoun, their regular home and in many ways the club’s super-strength. Few opposition sides relish playing on the hard, artificial pitch in front of the partisan Warrior Nation and it will be hard to recreate the atmosphere in the wide open spaces of Murrayfield.
Recent experience of winning at Murrayfield
Scotstoun is in the process of being adapted for the Commonwealth Games, with the stands at either end being dismantled and replaced with bigger structures ahead of the athletics being staged there next month.
Smith, the Warriors head coach, said he and his players had long accepted that their home ground would not be available. He wants them to be inspired by playing at Murrayfield, a venue where he made his Springboks debut back in 1996 and a ground familiar to all in the Glasgow squad.
They won there as recently as December 27, beating Edinburgh 21-3 in a URC fixture which doubled up as the second leg of the 1872 Cup. It was an important win, not least because Glasgow had lost to Edinburgh on their previous two visits to Murrayfield.
Smith hopes returning to the national stadium will give them “an injection of energy”.
“I think the fact that we're going to a place like Murrayfield in Scotland is important,” said the coach. “It's important to go and play at the home of rugby in Scotland. It was never a consideration, it wasn't even mentioned, the fact that we are not going to play at Scotstoun. It was always from the start about being excited to go and play at the home of Scottish rugby.”
Bring the noise, supporters told
Nevertheless, Murrayfield can be a difficult place to generate an atmosphere when it is well short of its 67,000 capacity, as Edinburgh found during the many seasons they played there before the flit next door to the Hive in 2021.
As of Friday afternoon, around 16,500 tickets had been sold for the semi-final and the attendance should be nearer 20,000 by the time the game kicks off at 2.30pm. Given the distances involved, there won’t be too many away fans, but Glasgow’s Warrior Nation can be a noisy bunch and there will even be a few from Edinburgh folk lending their support.
“We're very much appreciative of every person that makes their way over and even the Edinburgh support that we will have - we're very appreciative of everybody there,” said Smith who has stressed this week that his team are representing all of Scotland.
“We are used to having much less people in our stadium, with the fact that Scotstoun's capacity is much smaller. So every person that goes plays an important role and their vocal contribution is very much appreciated.”
It’s Scotland v South Africa in microcosm and if Smith is looking for an omen, there was a Scottish-inspired win for Great Britain’s Sevens team over their South African counterparts at the World Championships in Bordeaux on Friday, with Darcy Graham scoring a try.
Kyle Steyn, the Glasgow captain, kept Graham out of the Scotland team at the start of this year’s Six Nations and the Warriors winger has maintained his form as the season reaches its climax. He was outstanding in the win over Connacht in the URC quarter-final last week and it’s difficult to think of him having had a more productive campaign for club and country.
‘He leads through actions’
“He's been consistent during the season and he doesn't get fazed by what colour jersey he wears,” said Smith, whose decision to appoint Steyn captain when he arrived as coach in 2022 has been one of his shrewdest moves. “He always produces a very professional performance. And I think, again, the way his energy level has risen and the way he's invested in what we're doing and by leading with example, obviously is a good attribute. What makes him most influential from my perspective, is the fact that he doesn't necessarily talk only - he is a leader that leads through actions.
“Since he's been the captain, he's just embraced the responsibility and obviously, I think it enhanced his performance. So, yeah, he's just a natural born leader, if I can put it that way.”
Glasgow will look for another big performance from Steyn on Saturday. The winger is up against Kurt-Lee Arendse in what is one of the stand-out match-ups in a fixture which rarely disappoints.
Glasgow defeated the Bulls in the 2024 URC final but the South Africans bounced back the following season to win at Scotstoun. The Warriors have had the upper hand twice this campaign but playing at Murrayfield should suit the Bulls far more than the Scotstoun plastic.
The reward for the winners is a place in the final against either Leinster or the Stormers who face off in Dublin at 5.30pm. Of the four semi-finalists, it is only the Bulls who have not lifted the URC silverware, having lost three times in the final. Whoever adapts best to the open prairies of Murrayfield will go a long way to determining Saturday’s victors.
Murrayfield URC semi-final teams (Saturday, 2.30pm)
Glasgow Warriors: Josh McKay; Kyle Steyn (capt), Stafford McDowall, Sione Tuipulotu, Kyle Rowe; Dan Lancaster, George Horne; Patrick Schickerling, Gregor Hiddleston, Zander Fagerson, Scott Cummings, Alex Samuel, Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey. Replacements: Seb Stephen, Rory Sutherland, Sam Talakai, Jare Oguntibeju, Euan Ferrie, Sione Vailanu, Jamie Dobie, Adam Hastings.
Vodacom Bulls: Willie le Roux; Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie, Harold Vorster, Stravino Jacobs; Handre Pollard, Embrose Papier; Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Francois Klopper, Ruan Vermaak, Ruan Nortje, Marcell Coetzee (capt), Elrigh Louw, Cameron Hanekom. Replacements: Marco van Staden, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Wilco Louw, Cobus Wiese, Jeandre Rudolph, Zak Burger, Stedman Gans, Nizaam Carr.
Tickets for Glasgow Warriors v Vodacom Bulls in the BKT URC semi-finals at Scottish Gas Murrayfield are available here
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