DANNY WILSON has urged his Glasgow team to go one better than Edinburgh and win back-to-back league games in South Africa.
The Warriors meet the Stormers in Cape Town tonight then play the Bulls in Pretoria next Friday as the regular URC season enters the final straight. Their rivals from the capital beat the Sharks last month to become the first European side to win a URC game in South Africa, but then lost to the Lions.
Wilson insisted he would not be satisfied with the same outcome for his team, but accepted that the South African sides have become increasingly formidable opposition as the campaign has progressed. “We’re certainly here to win two games of rugby: that’s our goal and that’s what we’re training extremely hard for,” the head coach said after naming his team to face the Stormers. “We’re here to win two games, but we know how hard a challenge that is, as other sides have shown. I think if we could achieve that we’d be the first to do that, which would be fantastic.
“I think we’re playing the two form sides at the moment. We’re fully aware of the strike force and the danger that they have, but at the same time we’re coming off a couple of good results.
“I was really pleased with our performance against Newcastle in Europe last week even though I felt we left a few out there. It could have been a lot more - we played some really good stuff. We know we’ll need to be right on top of our game against this quality opposition, especially away from home.”
The Stormers, who have won their last six home games, are fifth in the table, three points behind third-placed Glasgow. Both teams are all but certain of a place in the end-of-season play-offs, and could become 100 per cent sure depending on results this weekend.
Wilson has changed a third of his starting line-up from the one that began last week's Challenge Cup win over the Falcons, with most of the alterations having been enforced by injury. The one change in the back division sees Ollie Smith come in at full-back as an indirect replacement for winger Sebastian Cancelliere, who has been ruled out after sustaining knee damage in the victory at Kingston Park. Josh McKay moves from 15 to the wing to take over from the Pumas international.
Up front, Zander Fagerson is at tighthead in place of Simon Berghan and will line up against Springboks loosehead Steven Kitshoff, the Stormers captain. Kiran McDonald is at lock instead of Scott Cummings, who also injured a knee against Newcastle. And in the back row, Ally Miller takes over from Ryan Wilson and Jack Dempsey returns in place of Tom Gordon.
Wilson, whose role as captain goes to Ali Price, misses out with a leg injury but should be available for next week’s match against the Bulls. Cancelliere and Cummings, however, are expected to be sidelined for several months. “Scott is going to be medium-term to longer-term at the moment; Seb definitely medium term,” Wilson added.
Stormers coach John Dobson has made two changes from the team that started the narrow win against the Bulls a fortnight ago: Frans Malherbe returns at tighthead and Junior Pokomela is at blindside. Lock Salmaan Moerat and full-back Warrick Gelant are set to make their returns from injury off the bench.
Stormers (v Glasgow at DHL Stadium, today [Fri] 5.30pm UK time): D Willemse; S Senatla, R Nel, R Pretorius, L Zas; M Libbok, H Jantjies; S Kitshoff (captain), S Ntubeni, F Malherbe, A Smith, M Orie, J Pokomela, H Dayimani, E Roos. Substitutes: J Kotze, A Vermaak, B Harris, S Moerat, B Dixon, N Xaba, P de Wet, W Gelant.
Glasgow Warriors: O Smith; J McKay, S Tuipulotu, S Johnson, K Steyn; R Thompson, A Price (captain); O Kebble, J Matthews, Z Fagerson, R Gray, K McDonald, A Miller, R Darge, J Dempsey. Substitutes: G Turner, J Bhatti, S Berghan, R Harley, T Gordon, J Dobie, D Weir, C Forbes.
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