ANYONE lucky enough to have a ticket for this evening’s titanic European Champions Cup tussle between Glasgow Warriors and Munster at Scotstoun might be forgiven thinking they are about to watch a rehearsal for the Scotland v Ireland fixture in the forthcoming Six Nations.
For in a ringing declaration of how important this match is to Warriors, head coach Gregor Townsend has named a crowd-pleasing starting XV comprising entirely of Scotland internationalists.
His opposite number for Munster, Rassie Erasmus, has named a very strong side consisting of 10 current Irish internationalists, plus Rory and Niall Scanell, who are on the fringes of the Ireland team, South African cap Jaco Taute and two others – Tyler Bleyendaal and Jean Kleyn – who may not have been capped by New Zealand and South Africa but are exceptionally fine players indeed. They also have full Ireland internationalists Ian Keatley, Billy Holland and Dave Foley on the bench alongside All Black Francis Salli and New Zealand under-20 player Rhys Marshall.
For the Warriors, Stuart Hogg returns at full-back, and Tommy Seymour starts on the right wing days after signing a new deal to stay at Scotstoun with Lee Jones on the other wing.
Alex Dunbar and Mark Bennett continue in the centre and Ali Price and Finn Russell start at 9 and 10.
Tim Swinson also signed a new deal and he joins captain Jonny Gray at lock behind a front row of the recalled Fraser Brown and Zander Fagerson alongside Gordon Reid.
Josh Strauss at Number 8 is in a stellar back row with Rob Harley at blind-side flanker and Ryan Wilson at open-side.
It’s a top class starting XV and there’s strength in depth on the bench, with potential Champions Cup debuts for forwards D’arcy Rae and Matt Fagerson, while the vastly experienced Pat MacArthur, Chris Fusaro and Peter Murchie are joined by Nick Grigg and Scotland caps Alex Allan and Grayson Hart.
It all adds up to an absolutely mouthwatering clash and Townsend is looking forward to it immensely: “It’s great to be involved in such a key European game and our players are looking forward to the match.
“We’ve built up some good momentum over the past few weeks, but Munster are also in a rich vein of form so we are going to have to deliver a big performance to get a win tomorrow night.
“It is exciting for D’arcy (Rae) and Matt (Fagerson) to be involved in their first European fixture. D’arcy has started the last two matches and played really well and we’re seeing him improve every time he plays. It’s Matt’s first year in the Academy and he has made a lot of progress in a short period of time.”
Townsend added: “We have two (Pool) games left. Obviously, if we have aspirations of winning the Pool then we’ve got to win both our games. Certainly, this game is the most important one for us.”
It most assuredly is the Warriors’ biggest game of the season so far by a country mile, and is simply a ‘must win’ if Glasgow are to go to Leicester next week with any chance of winning the pool.
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