Glasgow Warriors round out their mini tour of South Africa against the Stormers, with both sides looking to head into the international break on a high.
Kevin Millar assesses the stats.
- This will be the 25th time Glasgow have played a South African side in a competitive fixture – the Warriors currently have a record of 15 wins and nine losses.
- Their two victories at Toyota Stadium against the Cheetahs, and last season’s Grand Final triumph over the Bulls, are the only occasions that the away side have won in any of those 24 previous fixtures.
- Stormers have only lost one home regular season fixture in each campaign since joining the URC. Overall, they have won 29 of the 33 league games they have played in their own grounds, with their losses coming against Lions (2021/22), Munster (2022/23 regular season and Grand Final) and Ospreys (2023/24).
- Nineteen of the Warriors’ 23 are capped internationals. That is the equal highest tally for this stat since December 2019 (20 v Lyon in the Champions Cup).
- In his final outing for the club, Richie Gray is the Warrior to Watch.
The teams
Head to head
Matchday milestones
Scott Cummings is in line for his 100th appearance in the URC. He will be just one of three players in the current squad to achieve this feat, joining Zander Fagerson (111th on Saturday) and Duncan Weir (147).
Elsewhere there are milestones for both Matt Fagerson (100th start) and Adam Hastings (50th start).
Warrior to Watch
Barring a very surprising signing, Richie Gray will be the last man born in the 1980s to play for Glasgow Warriors.
The indefatigable elder brother was first sighted by fans on the sidelines at Firhill during a preseason friendly, when he was a skinny teenager with a wild shock of blonde hair.
It was another nine months before the big man had his first competitive outing at home, by which point the strength and conditioning programme had started to kick in. The hair took a bit longer to get under control!
After a record-breaking gap of 3,025 days between appearances for Glasgow, during which time he played for Sale, Castres and Toulouse, Gray’s second spell has been a productive one – especially when he matched wee bro Jonny in becoming a title winner with the Warriors.
As he moves on to Japan there is no question that he will be missed, and the club find themselves with no Gray brother in the squad for the first time since the 2007/08 season.
URC form
Track record…
…away to South African sides in the PRO14/URC era:
- Two wins
- Nine losses
- Six try bonus points
- Two losing bonus points
- 16 points out of a possible 55 (29%)
Glasgow also beat the Bulls in Pretoria in last season’s Grand Final.
Previous match-up v Stormers in South Africa
Officials
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU, 99th league game); Assistants: Marius van der Westhuizen and Christopher Allison (both SARU); TMO: Chris Busby (IRFU)
Andrew Brace’s record for 2023/24:
- Matches – 11
- Average penalty count – 18.5 per game
- Home side penalties conceded percentage – 54.9%
- Average card count – 1.2 per game
- Penalties per card – 15.7
It’s worth noting that Brace seems to have kicked off the current campaign on a bit of a tear and is averaging 21.7 penalties and 2.0 cards per game so far this season compared to his numbers from 2023/24.
In total, he has been the man in the middle 18 times for the club which means that he overtakes John Lacey in third place on the all-time list of
Read the rules here