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Gray day as Richie ends stellar Glasgow stint in Stellenbosch

By PA
Richie Gray of Glasgow Warriors during the United Rugby Championship match between Connacht and Glasgow Warriors at The Sportsground in Galway. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Veteran Scotland lock Richie Gray will play his final match for Glasgow in Saturday’s United Rugby Championship showdown with Stormers in South Africa.

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The 35-year-old second-rower is leaving his hometown club next month to join Japanese side Toyota Verblitz and has been selected in the number five jersey for his farewell appearance.

The match in the Danie Craven Stadium in Stellenbosch will be Gray’s 119th for Glasgow across his two spells.

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Wallaby squad announcement

Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt explains his squad selections

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Wallaby squad announcement

Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt explains his squad selections

The addition of the lock, who was omitted from the Scotland squad for the autumn internationals, marks one of seven changes to the side that started last weekend’s 28-24 defeat away to the Sharks.

Sione Tuipulotu, who was appointed Scotland captain this week, once again leads Warriors in the absence of injured skipper Kyle Steyn as they bid to subdue a Stormers side buoyed by a 34-19 home win over Munster last weekend.

Fixture
United Rugby Championship
Stormers
17 - 28
Full-time
Glasgow
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“The Stormers will provide another stern test for us,” head coach Franco Smith told the Glasgow website. “They look to be hitting top form as they showed in their convincing win over Munster.

“They will also be able to call upon a wealth of international experience and quality, with Springboks and World Cup winners throughout their squad.

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“It promises to be another electric atmosphere in front of a passionate crowd. We look forward to the challenge.”

Glasgow Warriors: Josh McKay, Sebastian Cancelliere, Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu (CAPT), Kyle Rowe, Adam Hastings, George Horne, Jamie Bhatti, Johnny Matthews, Sam Talakai, Gregor Brown, Richie Gray, Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey

Replacements: Gregor Hiddleston, Rory Sutherland, Zander Fagerson, Scott Cummings, Max Williamson, Henco Venter, Jamie Dobie, Tom Jordan

DHL Stormers: Warrick Gelant, Ruhan Nel, Dan du Plessis (CAPT), Damian Willemse, Leolin Zas, Manie Libbok, Paul de Wet, Brok Harris, Andre-Hugo Venter, Frans Malherbe, JD Schickerling, Ruben van Heerden, Marcel Theunissen, Ben-Jason Dixon, Keke Morabe

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Replacements: Joseph Dweba, Leon Lyons, Neethling Fouche, Adre Smith, Willie Engelbrecht, Louw Nel, Herschel Jantjies, Suleiman Hartzenberg

Louis Rees-Zammit joins Jim Hamilton for the latest episode of Walk the Talk to discuss his move to the NFL. Watch now on RugbyPass TV

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Flankly 1 hour ago
Four talking points after a 'bonkers' England loss to Australia

On the face of it the England rush defence seemed to be worse this week than last. I thought the line speed last week was very effective against NZ, and that the NZ tries had to be very well worked to get around or through. But in fact the apparent deterioration of the England defence may have been more about Schmidt learning from the NZ game. Australia were quick about getting the ball outside of the midfield defenders, and England struggled to cover it effectively. Suaailii was a key element of this. The Boks are going to test this next week, and if England don't address it we should see some Bok tries out wide.


The England attack was as expected, ie fairly ineffective, per last week. Smith is the exception. His magic was behind almost everything England did on attack. While it's great for England to have a player like this, the question is what will happen when an opponent targets him to minimize his impact. Can England win a game with their Plan B? We saw what happened in the 2019 RWC final when the Boks shut down George Ford.


More of a surprise was the England forward pack. This ought to be the area in which Bothwick excels. It is a traditional England strength, and Borthwick was a forward himself. And there is a lot of experience in that pack. So I thought Australia might be overwhelmed up front. But that's not really what happened. It's not obvious that the England pack is any more than average at the moment.


My conclusion this week is similar to last, namely that England has not solved its coaching problem. It looks very different for NZ and Australia - they both have coaching results that are looking quite good.

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