Glasgow Warriors can make history against Lions but Franco Smith has a different quest in mind

Franco Smith, left, with players Rory Darge and Domingo Miotti during a Glasgow Warriors open training session at Scotstoun this week. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

The coach is sticking to his processes in time-honoured fashion as he prepares his players for the EPCR Challenge Cup quarter-final against the Emirates Lions at Scotstoun. Glasgow have never made it to a semi-final in Europe and the fact that they will have to beat a South African team to do so adds spice to Saturday night’s match. Smith may have been over-egging it to suggest the Lions are favourites but the team from Johannesburg come into the tie in good form, with a recent victory over Glasgow under their belts and in the knowledge that they have already won in Scotland this season. Set against that, the Warriors have suffered just one defeat in 14 and have not lost at Scotstoun since La Rochelle beat them 38-30 in the Heineken Champions Cup in January 2022 en route to lifting the trophy.

Despite Smith’s protestations, the bookmakers make Glasgow odds-on favourites (4/5 according to Paddy Power), with the Lions priced at evens. The reward for the winners is a semi-final against the Scarlets, a potentially historic occasion which the Glasgow coach said had not been talked about during this week’s preparations. “I didn’t speak about this because it’s just another rock in the baggage which could slow them down,” said Smith. “If we’ve got to start looking at what can happen and what we want to happen then it is an unfortunate negative motivation for this game.”

Having said all that, and to paraphrase CJ from The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Smith acknowledged that Glasgow didn’t get where they are today by not putting in the graft in pre-season and beyond. He has also managed his squad carefully, resting and ‘resetting’ to ensure they reach their optimum when the big games come around. “We didn’t train the whole year not to be involved at the business end of the season and be at our best,” said the coach. “Everything is aligned, prepped and organised, and we have reset players with the aim that they can still play a lot of rugby. It’s all about getting them ready. I think our understanding of what we want on the field is getting better. We’re confident that we are on the right track and getting better every week. We are not playing the Lions, we are not facing a quarter-final, we are facing ourselves in the quest to become better and that will remain my philosophy until we’ve reached the required standard in every game.”

Smith had freshened his team with five new faces, including changing his entire front row for the fourth game in a row. Jamie Bhatti, George Turner and Zander Fagerson constitute a formidable trio but it means that Johnny Matthews, the five-try hero of last week’s 73-33 win over the Dragons, drops to the bench. There is also a change in the back row, with Matt Fagerson returning at blindside flanker. Sione Vailanu drops out after hurting his knee last weekend but the injury is not serious. To accommodate the younger Fagerson brother, Rory Darge switches to openside, with Jack Dempsey remaining at No 8. Scott Cummings and Richie Gray continue in the second row and it looks like an exceptionally strong pack and one that could just as easily be lining up for Scotland in a Test match. There is one change in the backs, with Jamie Dobie replacing Cole Forbes on the wing. Dobie, a scrum-half, impressed on the wing against Munster recently and it is an area in which Glasgow find themselves short of numbers, with Facundo Cordero, Seb Cancelliere, Josh McKay and Forbes all injured. Forbes hurt his quad against the Dragons but should be available for next week.

The Lions are the only team to have beaten Glasgow in the last four-and-a-bit months but the win came in the heat and altitude of Johannesburg when the Warriors were without their frontline Scotland players. Smith says he has used the defeat as motivation this week and he knows the Lions are better than their lowly standing in the URC suggests. They are currently 11th but are in the midst of a good run of form. They also know how to win in Europe, beating Benetton in Treviso last month and, even more impressively, chalking up three away victories in a row in the early part of the season against the Ospreys, Cardiff and Edinburgh. “The one at Ospreys stood out for me,” said Smith. “And then they went through a bad patch, I suppose. Their depth is different from the other teams, so with one or two injuries they maybe struggle a little bit.”

Their win over Glasgow was in a rearranged URC game which fell on the same weekend as Scotland were playing France in the Six Nations “We were obviously disappointed that week to come to the end of our ten-game unbeaten run,” added Smith. “But I would emphasise: we lost that game, I didn’t think we felt beaten. So we don’t take any negative aspects of that game into this week. They are a good team, they’re well coached, and they have the most continuity of the South African teams – they have only basically made one change, with [Willem] Alberts coming in [in the second row] and [Ruan] Venter moving to loose forward. They definitely come as an in-form team.”

Despite Smith’s caution he will know this is a golden opportunity for Glasgow to take the next step. The coach has brought a steeliness to the club and it would be a major surprise if a team boasting such a strong pack as well as a talented backline that features centres Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones did not emerge victorious.

Zander Fagerson returns to the Glasgow Warriors team as part of a very strong pack. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Glasgow Warriors v Emirates Lions: EPCR Challenge Cup quarter-final, Saturday, 8pm, Scotstoun. TV: live on BT Sport 2.

Glasgow Warriors: 15. Ollie Smith; 14. Kyle Steyn (c), 13. Huw Jones, 12. Sione Tuipulotu, 11. Jamie Dobie; 10. Domingo Miotti, 9. George Horne; 1. Jamie Bhatti, 2. George Turner, 3. Zander Fagerson, 4. Scott Cummings, 5. Richie Gray, 6. Matt Fagerson, 7. Rory Darge, 8. Jack Dempsey.

Replacements: 16. Johnny Matthews, 17. Nathan McBeth, 18. Simon Berghan, 19. JP du Preez, 20. Lewis Bean, 21. Tom Gordon, 22. Ali Price, 23. Tom Jordan.

Emirates Lions: 15. Quan Horn; 14. Rabz Maxwane, 13. Manny Rass, 12. Marius Louw (c), 11. Edwill van der Merwe; 10. Gianni Lombard, 9. Sanele Nohamba; 1. JP Smith, 2. PJ Botha, 3. Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 4. Willem Alberts, 5. Ruben Schoeman, 6. Jaco Kriel, 7. Ruan Venter, 8. Francke Horn.

Richie Gray's outstanding form for Glasgow Warriors this season has won him a Scotland recall. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Replacements: 16. Morne Brandon, 17. Rhynardt Rijnsburger, 18. Ruan Dreyer, 19. Ruan Delport, 20. Travis Gordon, 21. Morné van den Berg, 22. Rynhardt Jonker, 23. Andries Coetzee.