Al Kellock
Al Kellock returns to the Glasgow Warriors side for today’s massive Guinness PRO12 match with Ulster at a sold-out Scotstoun Stadium (kick-off 15:00 BST, 16:00 SA Time).
The Warriors captain, who replaces the injured Tim Swinson in the 2nd-row, could be making his final appearance at Scotstoun, following the announcement that he is to retire from rugby at the end of the season.
2nd-placed Glasgow can still secure a home play-off, but Ulster are also playing for home advantage next weekend.
With an increased capacity of around 10 000 it will be the club’s biggest home crowd for a regular season game and tickets for this match sold out in record time.
Following last week’s defeat to the Ospreys, Sean Lamont returns from injury and replaces Niko Matawalu on the left wing, with the Fijian international moving to scrumhalf in place of Henry Pyrgos.
The only other change to the backline sees Finn Russell come in for Duncan Weir at flyhalf.
In the pack, Dougie Hall replaces Pat MacArthur at hooker and Rossouw de Klerk returns from injury to take the place of Jon Welsh at tighthead prop.
Kellock comes into the 2nd-row to make his 156th appearance for the club.
Josh Strauss moves to blindside flanker replacing Rob Harley, with Adam Ashe returning from injury at No 8.
Mike Cusack also makes a return from injury for this game and the prop has been named among the replacements.
Glasgow Warriors head coach Gregor Townsend said: “Ulster are a really strong side who have been playing excellent rugby and we know we’ll face an extremely tough challenge at Scotstoun tomorrow afternoon.
“We’ve had some titanic battles with Ulster over the last few seasons and they play with a lot of passion and competitiveness and they will fight hard for everything.
“With all the games being played simultaneously it will be an exciting afternoon of rugby and we’re very motivated to improve on last week’s performance against the Ospreys.
“Playing in front of around 10 000 supporters at home for only the 2nd time in our history is sure to be a great experience for our players. We will be doing all we can to reward our supporters with a home semi-final the following week.”
Glasgow Warriors: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13. Richie Vernon, 12 Peter Horne, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Niko Matawalu, 8 Adam Ashe, 7 Chris Fusaro, 6 Josh Strauss, 5 Al Kellock Captain), 4 Jonny Gray, 3 Rossouw de Klerk, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Ryan Grant
Replacements: 16 Pat MacArthur, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Mike Cusack, 19 Leone Nakarawa, 20 Ryan Wilson, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Duncan Weir, 23 Peter Murchie.
Not available due to injury: Alex Allan (shoulder), Mark Bennett (shoulder), Fraser Brown (hamstring), Alex Dunbar (knee), Tyrone Holmes (knee), Sean Maitland (shoulder), Tim Swinson (ankle) and DTH van der Merwe (hand).
glasgowwarriors
The top four teams have already secured their places in next weeks semi-finals BUT home ground advantage is what is at stake today as only 1 point separates 1st placed Ospreys from 4th Ulster with the top three on the same amount of league points:
1. Ospreys 70; 2 Glasgow Warriors 70; 3 Munster 70; 4 Ulster 69
Glasgow let things slip a bit last week when they lost away to Ospreys and didn’t even get a losing bonus point.
Today’s games all kick off at the same time, the ones involving the top 4 are (current table place in brackets):
Connacht (7) v Ospreys (1)
Glasgow Warriors (2) v Ulster (4)
Munster (3) v Newport Gwent Dragons (9)
Qualification places for European Champions Cup are also still up for grabs: The top 6 teams and either Treviso or Zebre will go through automatically, while the 7th placed team will get a chance to qualify via a play off match against Premiership team and if successful in that a Top 14 team.
European Champions Cup qualification:
The top 5 teams – Ospreys, Glasgow Warriors, Munster, Ulster and Leinster already have enough points to qualify.
6th placed Scarlets must be favourites to get the other automatic spots and could even overtake Leinster, especially as they are away to Treviso, which leaves Connacht and Edinburgh to fight it out for the 7th spot and getting a chance to go into further qualification matches.
Treviso in 11th have 3 more log points than 12th Zebre so may be considered favourites to get through but they have possibly the harder game today as they host 7th placed Scarlets while Zebre are away to 10th placed Cardiff Blues.
Connacht (7th) could do Glasgow Warriors a favour by beating Ospreys (1st) and clinch a European Cup spot for themselves but this would make it nearly impossible for Edinburgh (8th) to qualify as they are 1 point behind Connacht and are hosting Leinster (5th).
Am not sure either of Connacht or Edinburgh will win so it may come down to who gets bonus points out their match. Would like to see Edinburgh win and get into Europe but would like to see Connacht winning and helping Glasgow into a home semi final (if we beat Ulster) even more…
Latest scores in the PRO12 (games kicked off about hour and a half ago):
Edinburgh 23/22 Leinster
Glasgow 18/10 Ulster
Cardiff 24/3 Zebre
Munster 45/17 Dragons
Treviso 13/17 Scarlets
Connacht 13/24 Ospreys
Ahh Leinster have just scored: Edinburgh 23/27 Leinster
Latest scores in the PRO12 (games kicked off about hour and a half ago):
Edinburgh 23/29 Leinster
Glasgow 18/10 Ulster
Cardiff 24/5 Zebre
Munster 45/22 Dragons
Treviso 13/17 Scarlets
Connacht 13/24 Ospreys
As it stands Munster and Ospreys will host semi finals, with Munster at home to Ulster and Ospreys at home to Glasgow 🙁
Latest scores in the PRO12:
Edinburgh 23/29 Leinster
Glasgow 30/10 Ulster
Cardiff 24/5 Zebre
Munster 50/22 Dragons
Treviso 13/17 Scarlets
Connacht 13/24 Ospreys
Latest scores in the PRO12:
Edinburgh 23/36 Leinster, bonus point for 4 tries Leinster
Glasgow 32/10 Ulster, bonus point for 4 tries Glasgow
Cardiff 29/5 Zebre
Munster 50/22 Dragons, bonus point for 4 tries Munster
Treviso 13/17 Scarlets
Connacht 13/24 Ospreys
As it stands Munster and Glasgow will host semi finals, with Munster at home to Ulster and Glasgow at home to Ospreys 😀
Latest scores in the PRO12:
Edinburgh 23/36 Leinster, bonus point for 4 tries Leinster
Glasgow 32/10 Ulster, bonus point for 4 tries Glasgow
Cardiff 29/5 Zebre – Result
Munster 50/27 Dragons, bonus point for 4 tries Munster
Treviso 13/17 Scarlets
Connacht 20/24 Ospreys
Results in the PRO12:
Edinburgh 23/36 Leinster, bonus point for 4 tries Leinster
Glasgow 32/10 Ulster, bonus point for 4 tries Glasgow – game still on
Cardiff 29/5 Zebre, bonus point for 4 tries Cardiff
Munster 50/27 Dragons, bonus point for 4 tries Munster
Treviso 13/17 Scarlets, losing bonus point for Treviso
Connacht 20/24 Ospreys, losing bonus point for Connacht
Treviso are the Italian team to play in European Champions Cup next season
Glasgow 32/10 Ulster – final score – bonus point for Glasgow who earn the right to host a semi-final with that
Bullscot wrote:
Sorry all bit confusing think I got that wrong think it should actually be : Glasgow v Ulster and Munster v Ospreys in the semi-finals. If my calculations are correct Glasgow Warriors have ended on top of the PRO12 log! Munster 2nd, Ospreys 3rd and Ulster 4th
Leinster 5th, Scarlets 6th are guaranteed European Champions Cup rugby next season. Connacht 7th have to try get them via two play off matches. Edinburgh 8th don’t make it and have to settle for European Challenge action next season.
Farewell Tim Visser who scored a try in what has turned out to be his last match for Edinburgh. What a good player he has been for them for a number of years, try scoring machine! Visser will be playing for Harlequins next season.
South African scorers in the PRO12 today:
Zane Kirchener – 1 try for Leinster
CJ Stander – 1 try for Munster
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