Glasgow Warriors get timely boost as George Horne leads returning players for Zebre clash

Glasgow Warriors have been boosted by the return of four Scotland squad members as they look to bounce back from last weekend’s frustrating loss to the Lions in Johannesburg by getting the better of URC strugglers Zebre at Scotstoun on Friday night.

Head coach Franco Smith shares a joke with George Horne ahead of Glasgow Warriors' match against Zebre.

George Horne (who came off the bench against both England and Wales at the start of this Six Nations and travelled to Paris last weekend as back-up to the match-day 23) comes in for the benched Jamie Dobie at scrum-half, while Ollie Smith (who has not yet made Scotland’s match-day 23) starts at full-back with Josh McKay moving to the wing. Meanwhile, loose-head prop Jamie Bhatti and hooker Fraser Brown will both look to make an impact off the bench (having fulfilled a similar role for the national team against France last weekend).

There is good news on the injury front as well with the 12-times capped Oli Kebble named on the bench having recovered from a shoulder injury which has kept him out since early December. He follows in the footsteps of Rory Darge, Scott Cummings and Allan Dell, who all start after returning from lengthy layoffs during the past fortnight.

“Having some of the Scottish guys coming back is obviously a big help in an important part of the season,” said head coach Franco Smith. “They played and travelled on Sunday which gave us one day less with them, but they are all very excited to play and to contribute. That’s the main thing – the fact that the Scottish players coming back into our environment want to contribute, they don’t come to participate, they don’t drive their own agendas, they are absolutely here to help the squad win and I appreciate that a lot.”

Smith is expecting more good news on the injury front with Murphy Walker (neck), Ryan Wilson (knee) and Sebastian Cancelliere (also knee) all expected to be back in contention ahead of Warriors’ next URC match against Munster on 25th March.

As for this weekend’s game, Cummings has been switched from his usual second-row slot to blindside flanker. “From his own playing perspective, that adds a lot of value for him,” said Smith. “He moves really well as a lock, and it gives us another line-out target this week. Once Richie Gray is back from Scotland and Sintu Manjezi is back from injury, this will be another option for us, and it’s something we are keen to develop.”

Zebre have lost all 14 URC matches played so far this season but Smith insisted that this won’t change his team’s approach to tonight’s game. “If we want to go all the way, or as far as we can, and be the best we can, then we can’t be concerned about who we are playing,” he reasoned. “We need to rectify some of the mistakes we made last week in attack and defence, and we definitely want to look at getting our scrum and maul as competitive as can be. So, Zebre is the team we are facing but we focus ultimately on ourselves. We’re not going to give them more respect than they deserve, but that doesn’t mean we don’t respect them. They are a quality team who have pushed a lot of teams close, and they are unlucky actually to not win a couple of games already this season.”