'Obviously, it's a frustration': No URC final in Scotland 'won't sidetrack Glasgow'

Glasgow head coach Franco Smith insists his side won’t be distracted by the prospect of not being able to play a ‘home’ URC final in Scotland – but are just focused on getting that far.

Warriors lead the table heading into the final round of the regular season but need to win a testing encounter against Ulster in Belfast on Friday to ensure a top-two finish, which ordinarily would secure home advantage to the final should they progress through the play-offs.

They will have a home quarter-final at Scotstoun on the weekend of 30-31 May, but their home stadium will be off limits beyond that, with work starting to transform it into a venue for the Commonwealth Games being staged in Glasgow from 23 July.

Should Warriors reach the semi-finals, they would play that fixture at Murrayfield. But the national stadium is unavailable for a possible URC final on 20 June, as the date falls between two pop concerts at the venue.

Other major venues within Scotland – Hampden Park, Celtic Park and Ibrox – have all been ruled out for various reasons, meaning Glasgow would likely need to stage a ‘home’ final in a different country.

“Obviously, that’s a frustration, but it’s something we can do nothing about at the moment,” Smith said. “We’ll have to play the cards that are dealt for us. We’re not in the final yet and I don’t want to be side-tracked at the moment by things we can’t control.

“Our mission is to get through this game this weekend, playing the brand that we know we can play away from Scotland and allowing ourselves to progress to give us the best opportunity.

“When it was originally announced that it won’t be here, that was when we were frustrated. Now we’ve learned to deal with it.

“For now, we will have to deal with that when we get to that final. It makes it difficult, but it doesn’t influence the motivation for the current challenge. We must deal with what we can. That’s been the mentality here, whether it’s injuries or decisions gone against us or travel didn’t work out well. Whatever influences things that we can’t control, we must learn to manage that and deal with it like all sportsmen at the top end must be able to.”

Fixture

United Rugby Championship

Ulster

11:45

15 May 26

Glasgow

All Stats and Data

Friday’s game could give Glasgow a close-up look at their potential quarter-final opponents – if Warriors stay top and Ulster remain eighth, they would meet in the first play-off phase – but also where a possible final could be staged.

With other football stadiums in Scotland also unavailable, Ulster’s 18,000-capacity Affidea Stadium is currently Glasgow’s preferred option should they reach the showpiece on 20 June, although URC officials are yet to decide whether they would grant that request or potentially switch the final to a larger venue elsewhere.

Although Warriors won the old Pro12 final in Belfast – against Munster – in 2015, they have not beaten Ulster away since 2013.

“At the end of the day, you can play a final in any place; it’s an on-the-day thing,” noted Smith, whose side upset South African side the Bulls in Pretoria to win the URC crown two years ago.

“If we get to play the final there, it will be fantastic. If we’re in the final, that’s going to be the next challenge for us. If it does work out that way, to have a game this late in the competition [in Belfast] allows us to use it as a point of reference. But for now, that has not come to mind. It’s all about the 80 minutes that we’ve got in front of us.”

Ulster have made 10 changes to their starting line-up with one eye on their European Challenge Cup final against Montpellier in Bilbao next Friday, but Smith still expects a full-blooded encounter, with the hosts opting to deploy the likes of Wallaby prop Angus Bell, Ireland forward Cormac Izuchukwu and half-backs Nathan Doak and Jack Murphy from the bench.

“I expect everything from them to be honest,” he added. “They need one point at least to be in the top eight. I think they’ve got that mission. You can see that the players they’ve got on the bench means they want to end strong in the game. They’ve got a strong second-half group coming on. We expect that they will try to win.

“I’ve seen that (Mark) Sexton, their attack coach, said they’re ready to beat us. So that’s the mindset. I’m sure they would like to go with all the confidence they can into next week’s final of the Challenge Cup. So we expect that they’ll come out full blast.”