Glasgow Warriors vs Sharks: Head to head and key battles

• This will be Glasgow Warriors’ 700th competitive fixture during the professional era.
• Of those 700 games, 19 have been played against South African sides. Other opposition by nationality:
  • Welsh – 246
  • Irish – 180
  • Scottish – 82
  • English – 60
  • French – 57
  • Italian – 56
• 931 days have elapsed since the Sharks’ only previous visit to Scotstoun.
• Just 16 of the 46 players involved on Friday night also featured in that last encounter between these sides.
• The Sharks have changed every single member of their starting XV from their matchup with Edinburgh last week. All eight of the bench from that game step up to start, while there are five of last week’s starters among the subs and ten brand new faces in the 23.
• The Sharks’ last away win in the URC was more than a year ago, against the Lions on 18th February 2023. Their most recent away win outside South Africa was 22 – 19 over Edinburgh on 28th January 2023.
• Superstar centre, Sione Tuipulotu, is the Warrior to Watch.

Teams:

(players in CAPITALS are full capped internationals, numbers in brackets are previous appearances for Glasgow / Sharks)

Head to Head:

Glasgow Greetings:

Kyle Rowe, Sione Tuipulotu, Zander Fagerson and Scott Cummings will make their first appearances at Scotstoun since they played against Toulon exactly three months ago, on 19th January.

This will be the first time since 11th November that anyone other than Josh McKay has worn the number 15 shirt for the Warriors, with the Kiwi having started the last 14 matches in a row.

Matchday Milestones:

Oli Kebble will be Glasgow’s latest Warrior Centurion and the 12th prop to reach the 100 appearances mark for the club.

The big man made his debut back in September 2017 after arriving from the Stormers / Western Province and has been a regular ever since, with game time at both loosehead and tighthead – even on one occasion slotting in at hooker for an uncontested scrum.

Warrior to Watch:

Many Glasgow fans may not have known what to expect when Sione Tuipulotu signed ahead of the 2021/22 season. Here was a player who had featured for three years in a row at under 20 level for Australia and with Super Rugby experience, including making his Melbourne Rebels debut as a teenager in 2016.

Tuipulotu was arriving from the not entirely fashionable Shizuoka Blue Revs though, having played most of his rugby in Japan on the wing.

Would he play in the centres? Would his SQ status set him on track to selection for the national side? Would he be any good?

To which the answers were of course – yes; yes; and very much so yes indeed.

Initially it seemed like Glasgow were getting a big bopper, a player who would truck it up in midfield. While the smaller of the club’s Tuipulotus certainly knows how to use his physicality (highest dominant carry percentage of anyone in the most recent Six Nations, highest dominant tackle percentage of any Scottish player) it’s his soft skills that have really come to be appreciated by the Scotstoun faithful.

Stepping in at first receiver. Defence unlocking kicks. Pretty much any pass he has ever thrown to Huw Jones. Sione Tuipulotu with his hands on the ball is frequently a precursor to good things happening for the Warriors’ attack.

League form:

Glasgow’s Track Record…

…at home to South African sides in the PRO14/URC era:

• 9 wins
• 7 Try BPs
• 43 points out of a possible 45 (96%)
• The Warriors also beat the Lions in a Challenge Cup quarter-final during this period.

Previous Match-up v Sharks at Scotstoun:

Officials:

Referee: Federico Vedovellli (FIR, 7th league game)
AR1: Sam Grove-White (SRU)
AR2: Rob McDowell (SRU)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)

Sig. Vedovelli’s regular season record for 2023/24:

• Matches – 7
• Average penalty count – 20.0 per game
• Home side penalties conceded percentage – 47.5%
• Average card count – 0.7 per game
• Penalties per card – 28.2

This will be Sig. Vedovelli’s first time ever in charge of a Glasgow fixture. It’s back to back Italian officials for the Warriors though – on league business anyway – after Gianluca Gnecchi in Round 13 against Scarlets.

Add in Andrea Piardi earlier in the campaign and Glasgow have been reffed by all three of the Italians who are URC regulars during 2023/24.

As the least experienced of that trio, the assumption might have been high penalty counts and plenty of cards would be the order of the day. That’s not been the case though, and his approach is a bit more ‘jouer, jouer’ (well ‘giocare, giocare’ technically) which hopefully contributes to an open game at Scotstoun.

Additional ref stats from: https://www.cardiffrfcfans.com/analysis/referee_heads.php?countryID=6