Glasgow Warriors have confirmed their pre-season schedule, which will see the Guinness PRO12 champions travel to play Clermont Auvergne and the Canadian National Team, ahead of the new season kicking off in September.
The Warriors will begin a week-long training camp in France on Saturday 8 August, which will conclude with a game against Top 14 side Clermont Auvergne on Friday 14 August (kick-off 20:00 local time).
The match with the European Rugby Champions Cup runners-up will be played in Issoire, which is located 25 miles south of Clermont-Ferrand on the Couze River and the game will be the showpiece event at the 2015 Auvergne Challenge.
Clermont reached the final of both the European Rugby Champions Cup and Top 14, before losing out to Toulon and Stade Francais respectively last season.
The squad will then return to Glasgow for a week of training, which will culminate in an open training session at Scotstoun from 16:00 until 18:00 on Friday 21 August. At this event supporters will be able to buy the club’s new 2015 / 2016 Macron playing kit for the first time.
The Warriors squad will then fly to Nova Scotia on Tuesday 25 August and will play Canada in Halifax on Saturday 29 August (kick-off 15:00 local time) in a game being billed as ‘The Battle for New Scotland’.
There are strong links between Nova Scotia and Scotland, with a high number of Scots descendants living in the Atlantic Province.
The unique friendly match between the sides will be played at the historic Wanderers Grounds, with temporary seating being installed to create a 5 000-seater arena.
Canada, who currently sit 18th in the world rankings, will play France, Ireland, Italy and Romania in Pool D at the Rugby World Cup.
3 Former Glasgow players could feature for Canada, with DTH van der Merwe, Connor Braid and Taylor Paris all in contention, while current Canada scrumhalf Gordon McRorie was born in Scotland.
Glasgow Warriors begin the defence of their Guinness PRO12 title at home to the Scarlets on Saturday 5 September (kick-off 17:15).
Supporters can follow the Warriors in France and Canada with updates on glasgowwarriors.org and across the club’s official channels.
Glasgow Warriors head coach Gregor Townsend said: “Clermont will provide the ideal test for us ahead of the new season.
“They have performed consistently well at the highest level of European rugby over a number of years and it’ll be a good challenge for our players.
“We’re also really looking forward to traveling to Nova Scotia to play Canada in Halifax, as they continue their preparations for the Rugby World Cup. The opposition could have a very familiar look if DTH (van der Merwe), Connor (Braid) and Taylor (Paris) are included in the Canada team, and it’ll be great to catch up with them while we’re out there.
“It’s an excellent opportunity to play a top class international side, while also promoting the Glasgow Warriors brand internationally and giving our supporters in Canada the chance to support the team.”
These are good games to have lined up for preseason, although with so many Glasgow players in the preliminary Scotland squad I wonder how many regular 1st team players will be going on the trips.
Wish Rossouw de Klerk all the best, he has been released from his contract at Glasgow due to personal reasons. He did quite well in his season at the club.
Glasgow could be struggling at tighthead, especially during World Cup time. That is 3 good tightheads that have left since last season: Euan Murray, Jon Welsh and now Rossouw de Klerk. May also have at least one tighthead away in the Scotland squad so this will leave a few very inexperienced guys to do the job. The young ones can only learn and improve from the experience of having to step up is a positive way of looking at it, my hope will be that they won’t be broken by having to play to much too early in this tough position.
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