Beating the Bulls is a must for Wilson
DANNY WILSON admits that Glasgow Warriors need to beat the Vodacom Bulls tonight to have any realistic chance of securing a home quarter-final in the United Rugby Championship. The Warriors go into the match in Pretoria currently in sixth place in the URC, with a top-four finish required to clinch a home play-off. They are a point adrift of fourth at the moment after slumping to defeat to the Stormers last weekend. Glasgow only have two regular season games remaining, with tonight’s clash against the South Africans followed by a derby against Edinburgh at Murrayfield in three weeks’ time. Wilson has made seven changes to the team from last week, the most notable of which sees Duncan Weir replace Ross Thompson at fly-half. Asked about the importance of the match against the Bulls, who would leapfrog Glasgow with a victory, Wilson said: ‘It’s huge. Mathematically it’s not a must-win — but the reality is that we know it’s a game we need to win away from home to give us the best opportunity of getting a home quarter-final. ‘A lot will come down to that last game against Edinburgh as well. ‘So there are two big games left in the league for us. ‘On top of that, we’re balancing a European knockout quarter-final game away at Lyon next week, so there is a fair bit to manage with the squad. ‘The season has been a bit strange with Covid, so the way it has worked means the South African teams are ending up with game after game at home, which has really allowed them to find some momentum. ‘It’s been challenging. But we want to finish with a win now that we’ve acclimatised. It’ll be slightly different going to altitude but we feel in a good place to go there and get a win. That’ll stand us in good stead to finish the season. ‘We all knew when we looked at the fixtures that we’d have a tough end to the season. We’ve had a lot of away games to deal with. But that’s probably what we needed because the future for Glasgow Warriors is to be better on the road. That’s what we believe will take us to the next level.’ Kick-off: 6pm, Loftus Versfield. TV: LIVE on Premier Sports.