Toony’s backing Fagerson junior to be senior star

MATT FAGERSON might have been in the shadow of his older brother Zander up to now, but if he fulfils his potential he could become a Scotland star in his own right, according to Gregor Townsend.

The Warriors head coach has picked the teenager for just his second start against Zebre tonight – his first also came against the Italians in the away PRO12 game earlier in the season.

Fagerson is at No.8 for this game after playing at No.7 for Scotland Under-20s, and it is still not certain what his best position will be.

But the main thing for Townsend is that he shows a lot of promise – and has the ideal role model in his front-row forward brother.

“He’s a player with real potential,” Townsend said yesterday. “He played very well for the Under 20s this year. He’s someone we have high hopes for in the future.

“He’s 18. Just now he’s an excellent ball-carrier and to have that at seven is a bonus. If he grows more he could develop into someone who could play No.8 at the highest level.

“We believe any player coming into our system can play for Scotland, but he’s obviously playing at professional level as an 18-year-old and he’s playing very well for the 20s.

“So if he carries on working hard he can obviously achieve a lot in the game.”

Last week’s loss to Munster effectively ended Glasgow’s hopes of reaching the play-offs – a severe disappointment for Townsend in his last campaign before taking charge of Scotland.

“We’ve lost a couple of games that we were in a position to win. Ulster and Munster were games we were leading going into the last ten minutes but have lost,” he said.

“I think the level of competition this year has been higher than in previous years.

“That’s made it tougher, but we’ve obviously not played as well as we would have liked.

“We lost ground on our rivals in the Test windows. Partly we didn’t play as well as we wanted to, but also the opponents we had in those windows were tougher than normal. That’s just a fact of life that you have to deal with.”

Italian international winger Leonardo Sarto is back to face his old club tonight after six months out following shoulder surgery, while centre Sam Johnson also returns from injury.

Replacement hooker Cammy Fenton could come on to make his first appearance at Scotstoun, and Sean Lamont will also be looking for a run off the bench in what would be one of his last outings before retiring.

Glasgow Warriors (v Zebre at Scotstoun 7.35pm): P Murchie; L Sarto, N Grigg, S Johnson, R Hughes; P Horne, H Pyrgos: A Allan, P MacArthur, D Rae, G Peterson, S Cummings, R Harley, C Fusaro, M Fagerson. Substitutes: C Fenton, J Bhatti, S Puafisi, B Alainu’uese, L Wynne, M Smith, G Horne, S Lamont.