MAGNERS LEAGUE Glasgow v Connacht:THE HOME team has prevailed in the last four meetings between tonight's combatants but that form-line is muddied by recent results. Connacht travel to Glasgow on foot of successive victories in the Amlin Challenge Cup, the most recent of which was a brilliant win in Montpellier.
The Warriors lost both of their Heineken Cup matches and have won only one of their last five games in all tournaments. However, the Irish province won’t get carried away with statistical data as they’ll be well aware they have prevailed in only one of their last nine Magners League matches.
Connacht are playing well and will look to maintain that run of success. Coach Michael Bradley has made two changes to the side that defeated Montpellier with Seán Cronin taking over from Adrian Flavin at hooker and Ian Keatley preferred to Micah Nikora at outhalf with the latter dropping to the bench. Nikora is joined there by a fit-again Ray Ofisa and Robbie Morris.
It would be opportune for a number of Connacht players to produce high-quality performances with the November Test series or probably more appositely, a brace of A internationals against Tonga and the Argentina Jaguars. In this respect left wing Fionn Carr is a prime example. He is the joint top try scorer so far in the league with three, has landed four in his last two European outings and was the province’s leader in that respect last season. He is among the quickest players in the country, can play wing or fullback and has a great deal to offer.
Glasgow will be bolstered by the return of the elder of the Evans brothers, centre Max, who provide them with more subtlety in midfield. A knee injury kept him sidelined until last week when he lined out for club side Glasgow Hawks. Scottish under-20 secondrow Richie Gray is also back after suffering an elbow injury in pre-season.
Scottish international Chris Cusiter and Graeme Morrison are among 12 internationals on duty.
Connacht need to introduce consistency of performance into their repertoire. It’s about reducing the number of errors and fostering the self-belief that they have the ability to reach the requisite levels for 80 minutes plus on a weekly basis. They might not be quite there yet.
GLASGOW WARRIORS:B Stortoni; C Shaw, M Evans, G Morrison, T Evans; D Parks, C Cusiter; J Welsh, D Hall, M Low; R Gray, A Kellock (capt); K Brown, J Barclay, J Beattie. Replacements: P MacArthur, K Tkachuk, D Turner, R Vernon, M McMillan, C Gregor, H O'Hare.
CONNACHT:G Duffy; T Nathan, N Ta'auso, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, J Hagan; M Swift, B Upton, M McCarthy, J O'Connor, J Muldoon (capt). Replacements: A Flavin, R Morris, A Browne, R Ofisa, C O'Loughlin, M Nikora, T O'Halloran.
Referee:Tim Hayes (Wales).
Verdict:Glasgow to win.
