'A few of my tries have come when I've ran after him while he's been beating defenders'
Rob Harley admits he will miss his Glasgow dancing partner Stuart Hogg as the Scotland star prepares to bring the curtain down on his Warriors career.
Harley has spent much of the last decade watching in amazement as his team-mate for club and county has hot-stepped his way past some of the best defences in the world.
The stage is set for the full-back to bow out on a high this weekend as he plays his final game for the Scotstoun side in the Guinness PRO14 grand final against Leinster at Celtic Park.
Hogg is due to join Exeter this summer but Harley is hoping to see one last display of his dancing feet before he goes.
The utility forward said: “It’s been great playing with Stuart. He was here when I started in 2010.
“I’ve seen him dance past players all these years and I’ve got a lot of memories of him making line breaks.
“A few of my tries have come when I’ve basically just ran after him while he’s been beating all these defenders and caught up to get a pass.
As he prepares to end his nine-year stint at @GlasgowWarriors, Stuart Hogg reflects on his debut, agitating for a move to Ulster, and how an "absolute shocker" revived this season.https://t.co/zHleRiQUi0 pic.twitter.com/GBMAVCE5O7
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) May 22, 2019
“It’s been incredible playing with him as he’s one of the best players in the world. We’ll miss him.”
Harley and Hogg are among the group of players who were at the club when they last lifted the league title in 2015.
And Harley believes that winning know-how will be vital as they look to halt last year’s double European and PRO14 champions from taking another title back to Dublin.
He said: “This is a huge game for us. I played the last time we won in 2015.
“We have a bit of experience from back then with a few guys in that squad still here.
“It will be a similar task this time round. It’s taken a whole year’s effort to get to this game so we’ve got the chance now to perform on the biggest stage against a quality team. Hopefully, we can get the result.
“It’s good for the squad that we’ve got the experience from four years ago.
“The guys know that have been there and done it before can impart that experience to those who haven’t.”
League chiefs believe a crowd of more than 40,000 will pack into Parkhead and Warriors hope home advantage will see them over the line in their own city.
Harley said: “It’s great to be playing the final in Glasgow in front of our own fans.
“It’s been a while since I visited Celtic Park. I’m more likely to go down to Firhill.
“But it’s a great feeling knowing there will be thousands of our own fans watching us in a final in our own city.
“We packed out Scotstoun against Ulster last weekend and got great support. Celtic Park obviously holds a few more than that so we’re expecting the noise to be even bigger.”
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