Perpignan showdown moved to Murrayfield from frozen Scotstoun

Glasgow Warriors last night announced they have switched Friday’s Challenge Cup Pool A match against Perpignan to Murrayfield due to the cold snap rendering Scotstoun unplayable.

The game will go ahead at the same 8pm kick-off time with the club now looking into whether buses can be provided to take ticket holders from Glasgow to Edinburgh on a day when there is a rail strike.

Glasgow managing directoralk el lock said :“the club’ s ground and operations team, along with the support of scottishrugby’ s ground team have worked tirelessly on the pitch at Scotstoun over the past few days. however, unfortunately, the weather has beaten us.

“Playing this game is a priority and we are grateful to Scottish Rugby for making the pitch at BT Murrayfield available to us at short notice. We understand that this option doesn’t suit everyone, particularly considering the ongoing train strikes, and for that reason we are now looking at what provisions we can make for getting to and from the game easier.”

Meanwhile, hooker George Turner is keen to get motoring after a stop-start season as Glasgow go into the festive period looking to build on back-to-back away wins.

Turner was part of the side which beat Bath at the Rec in the Challenge Cup on Saturday but it was only his second club start of the season. A runin with South African colossus Eben Etzebeth in Durban sidelined him for a spell and he then injured his shoulder playing for Scotland against Fiji in the Autumn Series, causing him to miss the New Zealand match the following week. He’s now fit and firing and ready for a run of three Friday fixtures, starting with Perpignan, followed by Edinburgh home and away in the 1872 CUP/URC.

It was a much-changed warriorsside which won at bath at the weekend, with debuts for Jack Mann, Angus Fraser and Cameron Neild and Turner felt the new blood helped lift the team.

“[Coach] Franco {Smith] spoke about the team he had picked and the energy of the new boys. the mix and energy they brought was what Franco believed we needed and it turned out it was. It was good.

“I've been a senior player for a bit now. I naturally shout at everyone anyway. I just have to think a bit more about what I'm saying.

“We were confident going down. It felt good going down. The team was well drilled and we had a good gameplan to play against them. We knew how to shut them down and we came away with the win.”

Turner helped get the ball rolling at the Rec, scoring Glasgow’s second try as they made a flying start. He said: “I’ve had my breaks. I want to get back in. That was my second start of the season, the first being Sharks where it didn't go too well because I came off before half-time after being pulverised byetzebeth.i want to get as much game time as possible.”

Perpignan are second bottom of the Top 14 but are not without their threats. They led Racing 92 at half-time in Paris last month and it was only Finn Russell’s introduction from the bench in the second half that turned the game. Turner dismissed the notion that Perpignan will be too focused on preserving their top-flight status in France to worry about the Challenge Cup.

“It is always dangerous to start thinking that way,” he said. “We're preparing to play a big French team who can be dangerous from anywhere."