The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Glasgow coach willing to help out Edinburgh
RUGBY: O’halloran keen to assist rivals in their bid to reach PRO14 play-offs
Glasgow can do Scottish rugby a favour this weekend by beating Ulster in the Guinness PRO14, says coach Jason O’halloran.
The Irish province are battling it out with Glasgow’s rivals Edinburgh for a play-off place at the end of the season, but must secure bonus-point wins in their remaining two fixtures.
Edinburgh currently have the edge, sitting third in Conference B and nine points ahead of Ulster, whose hopes of securing a play-off place could be ended against the Warriors on Saturday.
Glasgow have already booked a home semi-final, and O’halloran insists the players will not drop their intensity as they look to do their rivals a favour before the two go head-to-head in the regular season finale.
“It would be great for Scotland rugby if Edinburgh are in the play-offs and in the top echelon of Europe,” he admitted.
“They have had a great season and we want to build some momentum going into that game against Edinburgh in the 1872 Cup.
“The only way to do that is to go to Ulster and perform really well.
“We feel we have good depth in the squad, so regardless of who we choose or select, we would expect them to play well.”
The Warriors are likely to make changes to their side after naming a strong team to play Connacht in a 35-22 win on Friday night, but O’halloran is not concerned about the team being too disjointed or the incoming players lowering the quality of XV.
The attack coach said: “If you look at some of the guys we have left out in the past fortnight, there are some pretty good players who haven’t had much of a chance in the past two or three weeks and they could come back in.
“I think you will see us field a pretty formidable outfit against Ulster, and we realise too that if we make the final, we will have to win on the road and this is a chance for us to rehearse playing on the road and playing well.”
On any possible injuries in the squad, he added: “DTH (van der Merwe) has got a tight hamstring from the game so we have let him spend some time with his family in Newcastle and he will come in the latter part of the training week, but he will be unavailable.
“Jonny Gray will be unavailable at this stage with a shoulder injury, but we are hoping that will be alright, maybe for Edinburgh.
“Ryan Wilson is still out of the picture for now but will hopefully be available for the semi-finals.”