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Franco Smith makes 7 changes to Glasgow line-up for visit of Zebre
By PA
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.
“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.”
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
