GREGOR Townsend will not have to deliver any sort of rousing speech to motivate his squad before their game against Zebre this season. Just showing them the league table should be more than enough to get them in the mood.
Six successive victories in the PRO12 have taken Glasgow Warriors into the top four. If they win this game in hand tonight they will go third, and will be either two or three points off the top two and a home semi-final in the play-offs. In the process they will overtake Scarlets, who they meet next week in a match which is shaping up to be one of the defining clashes of the season.
“We know that we have now created an opportunity,” Townsend said yesterday after announcing a much-altered side from the one that beat Treviso in the first game of their mini-tour of Italy last Saturday. “I think a lot of teams will say that their destiny is in their hands - well, it’s certainly in ours.
“We want to win all our remaining games to get a home semi-final, because we’ve got Connacht and Scarlets to play – who are above us in the league. But they’ll say the same thing – if they win all their games then they’ll get a home semi-final, so there’s still a lot of rugby to be played. But we’ve created an opportunity and we just have to keep working and keep improving until we get there.”
Townsend, whose team also have a home fixture against Zebre to come in the regular season, has made eight changes to his starting line-up, with five of those alterations coming in the backs. Tommy Seymour is on the left wing, Alex Dunbar plays at centre, Duncan Weir and Ali Price form a new half-back pairing, and Glenn Bryce is named at full-back instead of Stuart Hogg. In the pack, Leone Nakarawa replaces Tim Swinson, Rob Harley comes in for Josh Strauss, and Ryan Wilson is preferred to Adam Ashe at No 8. Hooker Pat MacArthur is named among the replacements after recovering from a hamstring injury that has kept him out for two months.
There is strong back-up on the bench if required in the shape of players such as Finn Russell and Mark Bennett, but it is still a testament to the strength in depth of the Warriors squad that Townsend can afford to leave out internationals of the quality of Hogg, Strauss and Sean Lamont. Most of this week’s changes were planned before the 35-man squad set out for Italy, including the decision to rest Hogg from this game against the PRO12’s second-bottom club.
“We planned Stuart’s post-Six-Nations rugby and discussed it with him and how he’s feeling,” the head coach continued. “Getting back straight away for the Ulster game and playing so well in that match and against Treviso gave him a focus, but we know that players like Stuart can’t play more than four or five games in a row.
“That’s obviously the rules, but it’s also the right thing to do by them if they’ve had some intense rugby. And it’s just been brilliant that he’s been in form and is looking really strong physically in those two games after the Six Nations, so he’s earned a good rest. It means we can bring in Glenn Bryce, who has been very sharp recently, and with Tommy Seymour also back this week we still look very strong in the back three. Stuart, Sean and Josh all returned home on Tuesday night so they got a chance to rest this weekend.
“Lee Jones is the only [decision made] from an injury perspective - he got concussed. He’s running today, but obviously with the six-day turnaround he’s just missed out in terms of getting in [the squad]. We’re looking to use as many of the squad as possible: that’s why there have been a few changes this week.”
The Zebre team includes Leonardo Sarto, the winger who will join the Warriors in the summer. The Parma-based team are three points ahead of Treviso, and if they stay in front will claim Italy’s place in the Champions Cup next season. The match, which was postponed from January to allow the Warriors to play their rescheduled European match against Racing 92, is not being shown on UK television.
Glasgow Warriors (v Zebre at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, tonight, 6.30pm British time): G Bryce; T Naiyaravoro, A Dunbar, P Horne, T Seymour; D Weir, A Price; G Reid, F Brown, S Puafisi, L Nakarawa, J Gray, R Harley, S Favaro, R Wilson. Substitutes: P MacArthur, J Yanuyanutawa, Z Fagerson, G Peterson, A Ashe, H Pyrgos, F Russell, M Bennett.
Zebre: K van Zyl; D Berryman, M Pratichetti, G Garcia, L Sarto; C Canna, G Palazzani; A Lovotti, O Fabiani, D Chistolini, Q Geldenhuys, M Bortolami, E Caffini, F Ruzza, G Koegelenberg. Substitutes: B Postiglioni, A de Marchi, P Ceccarelli, V Bernabo, F Cristiano, L Burgess, G Bisegni, U Beyers.
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