GLASGOW back Robbie Fergusson believes his team have a good chance of pulling off an upset against Leinster this evening - thanks in large part to the return of most of their Scotland contingent.
Fergusson has had to drop down to the bench to accommodate Huw Jones and Sam Johnson, two of the nine players released back to the Warriors as a consequence of the postponement of Scotland’s Six Nations match against France. But he can still expect to play a part later on in a game which is shaping up to be a pivotal moment in his team’s season as they try to go on a late run into the top-three Champions Cup places in PRO14 Conference A.
“When we heard the Scotland game was in doubt, we knew there was a possibility of the boys coming back,” said Fergusson, who was selected last week in the Team GB Sevens training squad for the Tokyo Olympics. “It’s one of these things as professionals we know it can happen.
“Yeah, sometimes it affects your individual situation, but I’ve been fairly lucky in other situations. It boosts the squad to see so many boys coming back from Scotland, especially going somewhere like Leinster. They’re the bench mark and it will be good for us to go and see where we’re at.
“It’s obviously a tough place to go and play, and Leinster are a top side - they’re doing really well in the competition like always. But I think we’ve actually got a really strong side now with what’s happened with Scotland and it’s a real opportunity to upset them, I think.”
Leinster have 16 players away on Championship duty with Ireland, but have greater strength in depth than any other side in the competition, and with forwards such as Devin Toner, Sean Fardy and Josh van der Flier in the side they have still been able to select a pretty strong line-up. Nonetheless, Glasgow coach Danny Wilson agrees with Fergusson that his team have the opportunity to claim a valuable win - as long, he believes, as they play with more consistency over the 80 minutes than they did when they lost 19-32 at home to the Irish province back in November.
“I thought here we were quite competitive,” Wilson said. “I felt we played quite well against them in patches. Away from home, Leinster is a different story. They’re very, very good at home: they’ve built something there over a period of time.
“But it’s still a big opportunity. We look at our game where we come off the boil a little bit and Leinster are really strong. Before and after half-time we’ve got to be better.”
Teams
Glasgow Warriors (v Leinster at the RDS, today[Sunday] 5.30pm): O Smith; R McLean, H Jones, S Johnson, C Forbes; A Hastings, J Dobie; O Kebble, G Stewart, E Pieretto, R Gray, L Nakarawa, R Harley, T Gordon, R Wilson (captain). Substitutes: J Matthews, A Seiuli, D Rae, G Brown, T Ioane, S Kennedy, R Thompson, R Fergusson.
Leinster: J O’Brien, C Kelleher, R O’Loughlin, C Frawley, D Kearney, H Byrne, L McGrath (captain); P Dooley, S Cronin, M Bent, D Toner, S Fardy, J Murphy, J van der Flier, S Penny. Substitutes: D Sheehan, M Hanan, T Clarkson, J Dunne, A Soroka, R Osborne, D Hawkshaw, J Osborne.
Referee: F Murphy (Ireland).
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