Fagerson feels ‘something special’ brewing at Glasgow

Kirriemuir’s Matt Fagerson believes Glasgow Warriors are “building something really special” as they prepare for a match in South Africa tomorrow as part of the United Rugby Championship (URC) run-in.

The back-rower was just 20 when he started the Pro14 final in 2019 and is one of five players who remain from that group that lost narrowly to Leinster at Celtic Park.

Glasgow are currently top of the URC table ahead of the weekend’s match in Pretoria against the Bulls and Fagerson, now 25, said: “We had a lot of boys after that 2019 final who moved on to pastures new, but the great thing is we’ve got a group that’s been together for a couple of years now.

“We’ve been through tough times. Last year in the Challenge Cup final, we didn’t really fire a shot and that was an incredibly disappointing point for this group.

“But we’ve banded together, we’ve been here for another year and it feels like we’re building something really special here.

“There are so many people from various cultures all coming together to build those relationships.”

Meanwhile, Edinburgh are braced for “a massive match” as they bid to boost their hopes of making it into the play-offs with a home win over bottom side Zebre tonight. Sean Everitt’s side are currently ninth in the table with just three games remaining in their pursuit of a place in the top eight.

Although Edinburgh are outside the play-off zone at present, the mid-section of the league is so tightly congested that they are within two points of fifth-placed Stormers heading into the latest round of fixtures.

Edinburgh’s starting line-up features 10 members of Scotland’s 2023 World Cup squad, with just two changes to the team that won away to Cardiff in their last outing.

Emiliano Boffelli drops out through injury, so Matt Currie shifts to the wing, allowing Mark Bennett to start at outside centre. Fiji international Viliame Mata returns at No 8 in place of Luke Crosbie, who is named among the replacements.

● Finn Russell has returned from injury to reinforce the closing stages of Bath’s challenge for the Gallagher Premiership title.

The Scotland fly-half limped off early on European duty against Exeter on April 6 with groin damage that his club described as “significant”, raising the prospect he could miss the rest of the season.

But he has been restored to Bath’s starting line-up for their Premiership trip to Newcastle tonight.