Glasgow Warriors: Latest on Edinburgh match and pursuit of Ben Healy and Duncan Weir

Glasgow Warriors coach Danny Wilson is confident his club will be given the all clear to play Edinburgh on 2 January.

Glasgow Warriors head coach Danny Wilson is hopeful the club's match with Edinburgh will go ahead on January 2. Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images

The sides were scheduled to meet at Scotstoun on Sunday in the first leg of the traditional 1872 Cup festive double-header but the match was postponed after four Glasgow players tested positive for Covid-19.

The Warriors were also forced to forfeit their Heineken Champions Cup match against Lyon due to the positive tests, prompting them to complain to tournament organisers over alleged breaches of protocols by Exeter, the side Glasgow had played the week before.

It emerged after the match at Sandy Park that there had been a Covid-19 outbreak within the Exeter squad, forcing 20 Glasgow players to isolate because they had been in close contact.

The Warriors players are being tested regularly and it is looking promising that the inter-city derby will take place as planned at BT Murrayfield a week on Saturday.

“I am very confident that that second game will go ahead,” said Wilson. “We have been through three rounds of testing since the Exeter game.

“We test again before we play Edinburgh but as things stand any guys we have had who tested positive are on a different time frame.”

The complaint about Exeter is believed to surround social distancing issues and failure of some substitutes and staff to wear masks. Rob Baxter, the Chiefs coach, is annoyed that Glasgow’s concerns have been made public but Wilson says he has been in regular contact with Baxter throughout the process. The Glasgow coach is now more concerned with making sure his players are up to speed.

“We trained today but remember they’ve been isolating for 10 days so they came in and did a very light session,” Wilson said. “It’s high risk for a pro rugby player to come from 10 days off into a high energy session, you’re going to pick something up. We’ll give the boys a couple of days off, then train again post Christmas, and we still have others isolating and the boys who are positive. Hopefully we’ll be out of the woods next week.”

Wilson wouldn’t be drawn on suggestions that Glasgow’s hopes of signing young Munster stand-off Ben Healy look set to fall though.

“Nothing confirmed at this minute,” he said. “We are in the process of speaking to people in terms of recruitment but that is still a position of priority. I don’t have any confirmation either way at the moment.”

He did, however, confirm interest in another stand-off, Duncan Weir, who has been strongly tipped for a return to Glasgow from Worcester.

“He is obviously another quality ten and a Scottish international who is linked to the club so he is somebody we would definitely consider along with others in that ten jersey.”

Meanwhile, Mike Adamson has been appointed to take charge of the England v Italy match in February, making it the first time in 19 years a Scot will referee a men’s Six Nations fixture.

The former Scotland Sevens international will be joined by fellow Scot Ben Blain who will be an assistant referee.

Elsewhere, the Sale Sharks No 8, Jean-Luc du Preez, has been suspended for four weeks for his dangerous shoulder tackle on Edinburgh’s Hamish Watson during last weekend’s Heineken Champions Cup match.

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