URC break to help Glasgow regroup after Bulls defeat
Glasgow Warriors will be hoping a rare free weekend will give them a chance to recharge their batteries ahead of the United Rugby Championship run-in and play-offs.
The Warriors went down 19-26 to the Bulls last week, but remain second in the URC standings, one point ahead of the South African side, with two rounds of fixtures remaining.
A home quarterfinal has already been secured, but if the Warriors can hang on to second place, they will also have home advantage in the semis, should they progress that far.
With Glasgow’s out of the Champions Cup campaign over, they’ve now got a free week and skipper Kyle Steyn feels it is much needed after a gruelling season.
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Speaking in The Scotsman, Steyn said: “We’ve got to use the fact that we don’t have a game this week to freshen up and be able to come back and then take the learnings and use the fresh energy to catapult us into this because we’ve got two really tough away games to finish and then it’s into knockout rugby and whoever’s coming here [in the quarter-final], it’s going to be a tough game.
“Look, I haven’t played a lot of rugby this season so I’m probably a little bit better off than most of the boys but I know there are a lot of guys who, because of the injury list, haven’t had the breaks they would have hoped for.
“TJ [Tom Jordan], Staff [Stafford McDowall], [Rory] Darge and a lot of those boys have come straight back from Scotland camp, and they’ve played a lot of rugby. So I think for them, more than anything, this break will be good.
“I’m just going to rest up. Hopefully, if the weather allows, I’ll get out on the golf course but I just won’t mention the word rugby which will be quite nice for a week.”
Injuries have taken their toll on Glasgow this season, and on Friday, some players looked like they were running on empty. Steyn has had two lengthy absences, and the squad that took on the Bulls last week were without players like Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones, Jack Dempsey and the Fagerson brothers. The match against Bulls has added Gregor Brown, Jack Mann and Patrick Schickerling to the crocked list.
“I keep hoping every week that we’ll just catch a break eventually, but it seems like there were a few [more injuries] on Friday again,” said Steyn. “And we obviously lost Joshy [McKay] during the week [to a knee infection].
“I think that’s just the way it’s going to go and we’ve just got to buckle down, and whoever’s there, whoever can play, just needs to front up.”
Source: GlasgowWarriors
