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'I've been in a few dark places...the thought of this game drove me'
Zander Fagerson admits the lure of running out with Glasgow at Celtic Park was the shining light that guided him out of his injury darkness.
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The Scotland prop suffered the agony of a broken ankle during Warriors’ trip to South Africa for a clash with Cheetahs back in September.
The injury ruled him out for five months and saw him miss the Dark Blues’ November Tests.
Fagerson, 23, did recover in time to face France in the Scots’ third match of the Guinness Six Nations but was far from fully fit and sat out the final two games of the championship, including the thrilling last-day draw with England at Twickenham.
However, he was fuelled on by the desire to play his part when the Guinness PRO14 grand final is staged just seven miles across the city from his club side’s Scotstoun home at Parkhead.
And tighthead Fagerson has played like a man possessed in recent weeks and it would be unthinkable to see anyone else taking the number three jersey when Warriors march out to face Leinster on Saturday.
“The thought of this game drove me through all the hard times,” revealed Fagerson.
“I’ve been in a few dark places this year but I’ve got a really good support structure behind me with my family and friends, so that helped.
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“It was tough being injured but knowing the boys were doing an awesome job out on the field, I said to myself that if I can get myself fit and in a position to play a part if we do get to the final then I’d take it with both hands.
“As a team, we were pretty gutted with how we performed in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup against Saracens a few weeks ago but I was chuffed that I was back fit for that one.
“I’d said from the beginning of the season that playing in the PRO14 final in our own city would be absolutely awesome if we could get there, so to be actually on our way now is incredible.”
Ticket sales for the match have already topped 42,000 and PRO14 chiefs are confident they will yet beat the record crowd of 46,092 for last year’s final showdown between Leinster and Scarlets in Dublin.
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Saturday will be Fagerson’s first experience of Celtic Park but has heard much about the atmosphere it can produce.
And he is hoping the noise levels will be cranked up as the ground known as ‘Paradise’ by the Celtic faithful proves to be just as special to the Glasgow squad.
Fagerson said: “I’ve never been to Celtic Park – I was a Peterhead fan growing up.
“But I’ve heard it is awesome. A few of the boys have been before and say it’s great.
“They’ve been talking about the atmosphere it can produce and I hear there’s a big crowd expected.
“Last weekend we had 10,000 at Scotstoun for the win over Ulster and that was amazing. The noise was just incredible.
“If we could get 50,000 Glasgow supporters at Celtic Park it would be just brilliant.
“It’s been building all season for us. Saturday is a massive opportunity to do something special in our own city so we can’t wait.
“It’s been a massive squad effort. There’s been more than 50 boys who have played for Glasgow this season so that speaks to the great academy structure and the depth in every position that we’ve got.
“I’m so proud of all the boys the whole season and now we’re looking to finish on a high.
“I’m just a small cog in the whole effort. I’d be massively honoured to be selected to play in the final.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments