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Hampden Park clash a ‘a massive privilege’ for Warriors' boss Smith

By PA
Franco Smith

Franco Smith declared it “a massive privilege” to be leading Glasgow as they prepare to play in front of their biggest-ever home crowd in the first leg of the 1872 Cup showdown with Edinburgh on Sunday.

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Warriors made the decision to move the inter-city fixture away from their Scotstoun home to the 51,000-capacity Hampden Park, and close to 30,000 tickets have been sold.

Head coach Smith, who welcomes captain Kyle Steyn back into the starting XV for the first time since he suffered a leg injury in September, is relishing the showpiece occasion as his side bid to secure themselves an advantage ahead of the return fixture at Murrayfield the following weekend.

“From my personal perspective, it’s a massive privilege to be a part of it,” said the South African.

“I’m really excited. I will never take this for granted. I used to watch these derbies from afar for a long time, and to be a part of it again is a real privilege. I will always keep that dear to my heart in my life.

“To go to Hampden, from the players’ perspective, they know just as I do and the way the way we’ve anticipated for these two games that it’s going to be a huge occasion. It’s massive for the players.

“It is important to not only underline what we’ve been trying to do during the season but to prove to themselves that we’re on the right path and to be consistent in what we do against their own countrymen is obviously an important part of the puzzle.

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“We’re going to be focused on what we can do well, not necessarily what Edinburgh will bring, but what we can do well. For us, playing in a massive game like this and to measure ourselves against the best other Scottish team is obviously a huge opportunity.”

Edinburgh will travel west as underdogs given that they have finished well below defending champions Glasgow in the United Rugby Championship in each of the previous two seasons, are currently five places below them, and have lost the last two stagings of the 1872 Cup.

Duhan van der Merwe, Scotland’s record try-scorer, will make his 100th appearance for Edinburgh in Sunday’s match.

“We know how tough it will be to face Glasgow away,” said head coach Sean Everitt. “They have a strong record at home, so we’ll need to be at our best to beat them.

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“I’m really happy for Duhan to have got to 100 caps. He’s been such an important player for this team over the years and it’s great to see him hit the milestone against Glasgow.”

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J
JW 2 hours ago
Where is the new breed of All Black 10?

Players like Prendergast and Finn Smith already have a few seasons at top club level under their belt and are now test players, at an age when NZ players make their debuts in SR.

That’s just a difference in standards. You’re confusing SR for being their local domestic comps, where it’s more accurately comparable to Champions Cup, apart from that teams are happy to throw games as it’s in a bit of a limbo in terms of importance atm.


All these kids have been playing for a comparable NPC team for years now. Sam is no where near ready for tests but he has a great temperament, much like Sextons, that makes it a good choice to speed up his development. He wasn’t even a comparable Super Rugby starter before playing for Ireland, so not a great comparison.


Fin would be much better example, but then England don’t have 3 world class Test tens in front of him (not that I’d put Beauden their but obviously in terms of young NZ players chances, he is). Would he otherwise have debuted at the same age as Fergus Burke (injury and leaving withstanding), around 24, a couple of years later? England also aren’t as pedantic to who they give jerseys to, in NZ a test jersey is very hard earned for the most part.


In general I think the effects are as you say, but the only difference is the money involved, as you yourself said, their paths are just as all over the show being loaned out playing for clubs etc. My solution to that, and what you perceive as the problem, would be to introduce university football that utilitizes the large investment they have into high performance sport.

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J
Jennifer Ross 5 hours ago
One rule for Europe's copycats, another for the Springboks

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J
Jennifer Ross 5 hours ago
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