DANNY WILSON has made eight personnel changes to the starting XV he sent out for last weekend’s match against La Rochelle ahead of tomorrow’s trip to The Sportsground to take on Connacht, but has still managed to select 12 internationals despite Scotland squad members Scott Cummings, Rory Darge, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Sam Johnson, Ali Price and George Turner all being rested.
Ollie Smith‘s two tries off the bench in that loss to La Rochelle earns him the No 15 jersey in place of Josh McKay, who has an ankle injury. Meanwhile, the selections across the backline of Scotland squad members Kyle Steyn (shifting from wing to outside-centre), Sione Tuipulotu (outside-centre to inside-centre) and Rufus McLean (on the left wing) suggests that they will not be involved against England next Saturday.
Similarly, Jamie Bhatti‘s name on the bench indicates that he will miss out to Pierre Schoeman and Rory Sutherland in the Scotland loose-head selection next weekend.
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“We’re looking forward to resuming our league campaign tomorrow afternoon,” said head coach Wilson. “We know the conditions we could face at The Sportsground and how Connacht like to play, and we’re ready for the challenge they present. Connacht are a side who have played well recently and are very consistent at home.
“We welcome back a couple of guys coming back to us at the end of the week from Scotland camp. The boys have trained well and we look forward to the challenge.”
Prop Ewan McQuillin is unavailable, having headed off to Championship club Ampthill on loan to get some valuable game time after a calf injury, and he is on the bench against Doncaster Knights this weekend.
Glasgow Warriors (v Connacht at The Sportsground, Saturday 2.55pm): O Smith; S Cancelliere, K Steyn, S Tuipulotu, R McLean; D Weir, G Horne; O Kebble, F Brown (Co-Captain), E Pieretto, K McDonald, R Gray, R Wilson, T Gordon, J Dempsey. Replacements: J Matthews, J Bhatti, S Berghan, L Bean, A Miller, J Dobie, R Thompson, S McDowall.
Unavailable for selection: Hamish Bain, Rob Harley, Ewan McQuillin, Josh McKay, Tom Lambert.
International duty: Scott Cummings, Rory Darge, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Sam Johnson, Ali Price, George Turner.
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Interesting team , that we have managed to put out. Will be interesting to see how Weir and Horne go together for at least 60 minutes. Backs look impressive, and interesting to see how O Smith goes. This will be a tough game away.
I see the English based players of the Scotland squad are all in their respective club sides this weekend, including Kyle Rowe and Duhan VdM, who, we were told, were incapacitated this week!
Some of them (Jonny Gray and Rory Sutherland spring to mind) haven’t played for a few weeks so it’ll be good for them to avoid rustiness ahead of next week. Redpath got another 80 minutes under his belt in a good win for Bath last night, which is encouraging.