Who will be handed keys to number 10?
WARRIORS FACE TOUGH CALL BETWEEN WEIR AND MIOTTI
GLAsGOW Warriors’ coaching team will burn the midnight oil as they try to answer the ‘milliondollar question’ over who to start at No 10 in the European Challenge Cup final against Toulon on Friday.
With first choice Tom Jordan suspended following a dangerous tackle on Conor Murray during his side’s URC play-off quarter-final loss to Munster, it will come down to a choice between Argentine Domingo Miotti and scotland international Duncan Weir.
They have ruled out playing centre stafford McDowall — who moved to ten when Jordan was sent off in the 14-5 defeat at scotstoun — at fly-half as they believe he is more valuable in the midfield.
Glasgow attack coach Nigel Carolan insists no decision has yet been taken over who goes head-to-head with Toulon’s Dan Biggar at ten and a series of evening selection meetings will be held this week to decide who gets the nod.
Although Carolan was giving nothing away, the pacier Miotti — who prefers to play a running game compared to Weir, a kickto-the-corner type of fly-half — looks the better fit for Franco smith’s side.
‘if you look at the trend of the team over the last year, Tom Jordan has been the form ten, so we’ll miss him in the final,’ said Carolan. ‘But this is a chance for someone else to step up in that position.
‘When you look at it, there was very little mitigation on Tom’s behalf against Munster, so he was ready to take his medicine.
‘Who plays at ten now, that’s the million-dollar question. One of our more established tens will probably be the plan and we’ll see how Duncan and Domingo go at the start of the week then decide which of them will start.
‘Duncan is an established game-managing ten. he’s got a pretty sound kicking game and a cool head.
‘Domingo, on the other hand, has a little more flair than Duncan and is very much a confidence player. When his confidence is up, he does some really magical things. The challenge is to have players around him to get the best out of him if we do decide to select him.
‘We think that Domingo shows he can handle the big occasion. Duncan is a little bit more conservative, plays more back in the pocket. he has a good kicking game as i said, but generally we are a team who try to break sides down with ball in hand.
‘Most of our kicks are on the front foot, we don’t generally kick off ten. if we do select Duncan, it does change to some degree some of the things we do. i’m very confident that whoever plays will do the job.’
Although a decision over fly-half is the key selection call for the Glasgow coaches to get right, Carolan admits there are other positions that have yet to be decided.
‘There are three hookers here and it is between Fraser Brown, George Turner and Johnny Matthews, so it’s difficult to select two out of those three for the final,’ he said.
‘in the back row, there are probably four and we have to pick three, and it’s the same at centre — there are four there and we have to get two out.
‘There are a lot of headaches, good headaches. it’s good to have this issue at this stage of the season because this time last year we were threadbare.’
Carolan said the Glasgow coaches had taken no notice of Toulon’s heavy 43-7 defeat to Racing 92 at the weekend, a game in which scotland international Finn Russell ran the show for the Paris outfit.
‘They had more of a second team out so our homework was done more on the side which played against La Rochelle the week before, and Lyon the week before that as well,’ he said. ‘We didn’t take too much notice of what happened at the weekend, and most of our focus is generally on ourselves.
‘We know the threats that Toulon bring. They are a physical team with a big set-piece.
‘i think Dan Biggar will start. he is there for this kind of big game, and we know it’s all about Dan. he wants a lot of the focus and limelight on him, so he’ll want a lot of the play to go through him in terms of both kicking and running the ball.
‘We expect a lot of kicks from him, high balls in behind to challenge our back three, but whichever one they select at ten is not really a massive focus for us.’