Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Glasgow set to deploy 6'5, 120kg winger that wreaked havoc on Scotland

GettyImages-1276752398

Glasgow Warriors are set to give a giant Tongan winger – who wreaked havoc on Scotland’s back three during the Autumn Nations Series – his first start for the Scottish side.

ADVERTISEMENT

Walter Fifita could make his first appearance for Glasgow tomorrow evening after the winger was named on the replacements for their United Rugby Championship (URC) clash with the Ospreys at Scotstoun.

The 6ft 5′ 120kg strike runner – who is built more like a second row than a winger – will become the fifth Tongan – and first Tongan back – to represent Glasgow, following in the footsteps of Ofa Fainga’anuku, Sila Puafisi, Siua Halanukonuka and Fotu Lokotui.

He is the heaviest back in the URC and one of the biggest backs in world rugby.

The 24-year-old spent two seasons at North Harbour after spending 2018/19 playing in Spain where he scored 13 tries in 16 matches for El Salvador, who went on to claim the top title that year in that country.

Fifita made his international debut earlier in 2021, coming off the bench in the Tonga defeat to New Zealand and he earned a second cap against Samoa in a World Cup qualifier.

The hulking back proved quite the handful during Scotland and Tonga’s Autumn Nation Series clash, with a number of bullocking runs up the wing catch the eye in Murrayfield.

Head Coach Danny Wilson has made just two changes following the club’s 22-7 victory over Exeter Chiefs in the Heineken Champions Cup in December. Wilson told glasgowwarriors.org: “After a couple of weeks with no game and a good week’s training this week, we are really looking forward to getting back to league rugby at Scotstoun tomorrow evening.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Ospreys are a quality side full of international experience. They sit above us in the league and this will be another huge challenge, but one we’re excited about and looking forward to.

“We’re pleased to welcome back the experience and leadership of both Ryan Wilson and Fraser Brown, and Walter Fifita has the opportunity to make his first involvement for the club.”

“He is a big, abrasive player who we believe can be a real asset to us out wide,” Wilson said of the Lomuesque winger when he signed.

GLASGOW WARRIORS
1. JamieBhatti (55)
2. George Turner (68)
3. Zander Fagerson (105)
4. Scott Cummings (82)
5. Kiran McDonald (40)
6. Ryan Wilson (198)
7. Rory Darge (12)
8. Matt Fagerson (76)

ADVERTISEMENT

9. Ali Price(C) (101)
10. Ross Thompson (23)
11. Cole Forbes (15)
12. Sam Johnson (80)
13. Sione Tuipulotu (9)
14. Kyle Steyn (39)
15. Josh McKay (3)

REPLACEMENTS:
16. FraserBrown (113)
17. Oli Kebble (64)
18. Enrique Pieretto (25)
19. Lewis Bean (12)
20. Thomas Gordon (41)
21. Jamie Dobie (25)
22. Duncan Weir (113)
23. Walter Fifita (0)

Kick off is 5.15pm

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 1 hour ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

Like I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.


Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.


So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).


You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.


I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?

120 Go to comments
f
fl 4 hours ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"

I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.

But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.


Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.


"I'm afraid to say"

Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!

120 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Jamie Cudmore: I want to help rescue Canada from a 'slow agonising death' Jamie Cudmore: I want to help rescue Canada from a 'slow agonising death'
Search