Wilson targets two wins in South Africa but expects fierce front-row battle
Danny Wilson says he’s looking for two wins from two from Glasgow Warriors’ minitour of South Africa but you suspect the head coach would be delighted to return home with a single victory under his belt.
This is as daunting a mission as Glasgow are likely to face in the URC this season. The Stormers, who Wilson’s side play in Cape Town tonight, are onafive-gamewinningrunand are breathing down the neck of their third-placed visitors with three rounds remaining of the regular season.
The Bulls, who host the Warriors in Pretoria next week, have not lost to a European side since going down to Edinburgh in October.
Two long-haul flights followed by training sessions in strength-sapping heat are hardly ideal preparations for taking on a team featuring two World Cup-winning props but Wilson was keen to stress the positives as he faced the media ahead of the Stormers match.
“We’re certainly here to win two games of rugby: that’s our goalandthat’swhatwe’retraining extremely hard for,” he said. “We know that this league is so tight at the moment, any points are going to have a major bearing in these last three games.
"We’reheretowintwogames, 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.”
Glasgow are based in Stellenbosch and trained in temperatures reaching 34 degrees on Wednesday but Wilson reckons it will be a good bit cooler when they take on the Stormers at 6.30pm local time (5.30pm BST).
Glasgow have been buoyed by a solid away win over Newcastle in the Challenge Cup but it took two eight-hour flights to reach South Africa via Dubai.
“The challenges come with being away from home, especially the distances that we’re travelling,” acknowledged Wilson. “But at the same time it’s been quite refreshing, in a strange way.
“You’re coming to a very different place, and it’s been great in the down time for boys to get out and have a look around, recover from the travel, different scenery, some real nice weather, great food. So that does refresh you mentally.”
Ali Price will captain Glasgow as Ryan Wilson has not recovered from the dead leg he picked up against Newcastle. Jack Dempsey replaces Wil
son at No 8 and Ally Miller also comes into the back row alongside Rory Darge.
Kiran Mcdonald is at lock in place of the injured Scott Cummings and Josh Mckay moves to the wing where he slots in for Seb Cancelliere who damaged knee ligaments at Kingston Park. Ollie Smith is at full-back.
Zander Fagerson returns at tighthead and will pack down alongside Johnny Matthews and ex-stormers prop Oli Kebble in what is likely to be a fierce front-row battle against Steven Kitshoff, the home captain, fellow World Cup-winner Frans Malherbe, and Boks hooker Scarra Ntubeni.
“Scrum-time is going to be a big challenge,” said Wilson. “They have two very experienced props and a good front row generally – a good pack of forwardsoverall.wehavesome veryexperiencedpropstherein Oli and Zander and also Simon Berghan and Jamie Bhatti. We havequalityplayersofourown.”