Guest Blogger: Glasgow Warriors vs Leinster

We welcome guest blogger and Glasgow Warriors fan The Pen, as he previews the Warriors clash with Leinster..

The dust has settled and the newspapers carrying the news of Glasgow Warriors victory over Connacht have been recycled or turned into chip wrapper.

So now the attentions must turn to the last years runners-up Leinster and how to overcome them.

Gregor Townsend has named a starting line up with just 2 changes, both of which come in the front row. Fraser Brown and Sila Puafisi both come in to replace Pat McArthur and Zander Fagerson respectively. This may be a reaction to the scrum being battered early on by Connacht although Glasgow won 8 of their 9 scrums so it didn’t seem to hinder them too badly. 

The performance last week must have made it very difficult for Townsend not to pick almost the exactly same side.

In the second row, Swinson and Gray were absolutely imperious and indeed Jonny Gray made 15 tackles and didn’t miss one. The rest of the starting pack weren’t too bad as they made 40 between then and only when Ryan Wilson was in the bin did Connacht have any joy.

Wilson himself made 12 tackles, missing only 1 but the biggest criticism of his game is discipline and if he makes the same error against Leinster then he could be returning to the field having cost his team a lot more than just 5 points.

In attack, Sarto, Seymour and Hogg have already shown the damage that they can do together and with another weeks training under their belts, it will be interesting to see if Leinster can do a better job of shutting down this unit than Connacht did.

Sam Johnson deservedly keeps his place in the centre alongside Dunbar and it’s great to see the strength in depth that Glasgow have in this department. It feels like it doesn’t matter what partnership goes out onto the pitch, they can get the job done.

If Glasgow are to keep the good start going, then the key for me could be Pete Horne. His link up with Pyrgos at nine is electric and he has a real eye for spotting an opening and for seeing when that opening is gone and taking the tackle instead. In hindsight and having watched the game again, I really should have included Pete into my man of the match award. Sorry Mr Horne!

Leinster come to Scotstoun on the back of an under whelming victory against Treviso at the RDS and will be keen to kick on and show why they were in the Final last season.

They have made 3 changes to their starting side with Dave Kearney, James Tracy and Jordi Murphy come in.

It’s a strong Leinster side but it’s most definitely not the Leinster of old that struck fear into the heart. Ringrose and Carberry played exceptionally well last week but there is no Sexton, Nacewa, O’Brien or Henshaw and with Madigan now in France they look somewhat lacklustre. I’m not saying they can’t win, but I genuinely think that Glasgow have an excellent chance of a victory.

The unknown factor for both teams is the new plastic surface. Glasgow have shown on this kind of pitch at Rugby Park and in Cardiff that they can play some great rugby and score a hatful of tries so it could easily be the game of the weekend on Sky. Let’s just hope I’m celebrating tomorrow night…

You can see more of The Pen's stuff here and catch him on twitter @ThePenGW