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Franco Smith makes 7 changes to Glasgow line-up for visit of Zebre

By PA
Adam Hastings of Gloucester arrives at the stadium prior to the EPCR Challenge Cup Final match between Gloucester Rugby and Hollywoodbets Sharks at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 24, 2024 in London, England.(Photo by Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images)

Franco Smith has continued rotating his Glasgow side for Friday’s visit of Zebre as he bids to ensure his squad is primed for their upcoming trip to South Africa.

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The Warriors coach has made seven changes to the XV that started last weekend’s United Rugby Championship victory away to Cardiff, with Scotland internationals Sione Tuipulotu, Rory Sutherland and Matt Fagerson among those to miss out.

Smith is keen to ensure as many of his players as possible have game time under their belts ahead of their formidable South African double-header against Sharks and Stormers.

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      “Obviously, it’s important to have a good performance against Zebre to take some continuity (to South Africa),” Smith said. “We’ve made enough changes, 14 in the first game against Ulster that didn’t play in the warm-up games, then it was six changes against Benetton, and then nine last week, and there’s seven this week.

      “It’s important to get the whole squad some minutes under their belt and get them best prepared so that we take a team that’s rugby ready on a difficult tour.”

      Fixture
      United Rugby Championship
      Glasgow
      33 - 3
      Full-time
      Zebre
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      It was announced last week that Richie Gray will be leaving the club in November to head abroad but he has not been selected for tomorrow’s match, meaning the recent Benetton game – played before news of his departure became public – will go down as his last at home for Glasgow.

      “He’s a big man, older guy, needs to be managed as well,” said Smith of his absence this weekend. “He knew already that the game against Benetton was his last game at Scotstoun, but he will be touring with us to South Africa.”

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      Captain Kyle Steyn misses out with a foot injury but Smith expects him to be fit to go to South Africa. The head coach hopes to see his defending champions make it three wins from four URC matches this weekend.

      “It’s a good start, but a lot of our processes are not functioning as good as they should be yet,” said Smith. “We’ve got to just focus and concentrate on what we need to get right from a process perspective. The win is important, but for us to continue winning, we need to get better at what we do.”

      Glasgow Warriors: Kyle Rowe, Jamie Dobie, Huw Jones, Stafford McDowall (CAPT), Facundo Cordero, Adam Hastings, George Horne, Jamie Bhatti, Johnny Matthews, Zander Fagerson, Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings, Euan Ferrie, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey

      Replacements: Grant Stewart, Nathan McBeth, Patrick Schickerling, Alex Samuel, Max Williamson, Henco Venter, Ben Afshar, Tom Jordan

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      Zebre Parma: Geronimo Prisciantelli, Jacopo Trulla, Fetuli Paea, Scott Gregory, Simone Gesi, Giacomo Da Re, Gonzalo Garcia, Danilo Fischetti (CAPT), Giampietro Ribaldi, Matteo Nocera, Leonard Krumov, Andrea Zambonin, Giacomo Ferrari, Luca Andreani, Giovanni Licata

      Replacements: Luca Bigi, Samuele Taddei, Ion Neculai, Matteo Canali, Iacopo Bianchi, Alessandro Fusco, Damiano Mazza, Ben Cambriani

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      J
      JW 1 hour ago
      Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

      It is now 22 years since Michael Lewis published his groundbreaking treatise on winning against the odds

      I’ve never bothered looking at it, though I have seen a move with Clint as a scout/producer. I’ve always just figured it was basic stuff for the age of statistics, is that right?

      Following the Moneyball credo, the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available

      This is actually a great example of what I’m thinking of. This concept has abosolutely nothing to do with Moneyball, it is simple being able to realise how skillsets tie together and which ones are really revelant.


      It sounds to me now like “moneyball” was just a necessity, it was like scienctest needing to come up with some random experiment to make all the other world scholars believe that Earth was round. The American sporting scene is very unique, I can totally imagine one of it’s problems is rich old owners not wanting to move with the times and understand how the game has changed. Some sort of mesiah was needed to convert the faithful.


      While I’m at this point in the article I have to say, now the NRL is a sport were one would stand up and pay attention to the moneyball phenom. Like baseball, it’s a sport of hundreds of identical repetitions, and very easy to data point out.

      the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available and look to get ahead of an unfair game in the areas it has always been strong: predictive intelligence and rugby ‘smarts’

      Actually while I’m still here, Opta Expected Points analysis is the one new tool I have found interesting in the age of data. Seen how the random plays out as either likely, or unlikely, in the data’s (and algorithms) has actually married very closely to how I saw a lot of contests pan out.


      Engaging return article Nick. I wonder, how much of money ball is about strategy as apposed to picks, those young fella’s got ahead originally because they were picking players that played their way right? Often all you here about is in regards to players, quick phase ruck ball, one out or straight up, would be were I’d imagine the best gains are going to be for a data driven leap using an AI model of how to structure your phases. Then moving to tactically for each opposition.

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