Connacht and Glasgow Warriors will be battling it out in today’s Guinness PRO12 semifinal in Galway for a place in the final against Leinster at Murrayfield next weekend. This after hosts Leinster pulled off a comfortable victory against Ulster last night in the first semifinal. The final score in that match was : Leinster 30 / 18 Ulster.
Connacht must surely be heading into today’s match in a very confident frame of mind as the last time they played Glasgow Warriors they ended up on the winning side with a 7 point margin of victory in a low scoring affair. That match took place 2 weeks ago in the last Round of the regular league stage and was also played at Connacht’s home ground in the picturesque Galway.
Today’s match should be played in far better conditions than the last one between these 2 teams and this could help Glasgow who like to play an attractive attacking brand of rugby. The only thing is that Connacht, under Pat Lam, have also developed into a slick unit who have the ability to run with the ball and offload smartly too and are at this stage possibly the more rounded team as they proved 2 weeks ago that they also have the ability to ‘win ugly’.
Some big calls had to be made by Gregor Townsend in the front for Glasgow and as his star tighthead prop Silau Puafisi is not available today. He is serving a 3 week ban after receiving his marching orders against Connacht in the last match these teams played. The young Zander Fagerson, who will most probably feature for Scotland Under 20s in next month’s Junior World Cup, will be starting while D’arcy Rae will be on the bench. Rae is 22 years old and has played 7 times so far for the Warriors. A possibly odd decision was made on the loosehead side as Ryan Grant is on the bench after a 3 month injury lay-off. Surely that is a bit of a gamble in such a big game as this and one wonders if Jerry Yanuyanutawa would maybe have been a better option, the opinion is that he a dynamic player who offers decent impact when he plays.
Centre Peter Horne will be focussing on his 100th game for Glasgow Warriors and hoping to make a big contribution to help the Warriors in their quest to become the 1st away team to win a PRO12 knockout match.
Teams:
Connacht: T O’Halloran, N Adeolokun, R Henshaw, B Aki, M Healy, AJ MacGinty, K Marmion, R Loughney, T McCartney, F Bealham, U Dillane, A Muldowney, E McKeon, J Heenan, J Muldoon (Captain)
Replacements: D Heffernan, JP Cooney, R Ah You, A Browne, S O’Brien, John Cooney, S O’Leary, P Robb.
Glasgow: S Hogg, T Seymour, M Bennett, P Horne, S Lamont, F Russell, H Pyrgos, G Reid, F Brown, Z Fagerson, L Nakarawa, J Gray (Captain), R Wilson, S Favaro, J Strauss
Replacements: P MacArthur, R Grant, D Rae, T Swinson, A Ashe, G Hart, D Weir, T Naiyaravoro
KICK-OFF: 18:30 BST (17:30 GMT, 19:30 SA Time)