PRO14 Round 15 – Edinburgh vs Glasgow

Venue: BT Murrayfield
Kick-off: 7.35pm

Fraser Brown will make his 100th appearance for Glasgow Warriors on Friday against Edinburgh in a reversal of last weekends fixture.

Edinburgh are nominally the home team which in practice mostly means a switch of dressing rooms and a sprinkling of supporters allowed into BT Murrayfield’s cavernous echoes this time around. It will be the first professional rugby fixture to host a crowd since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Edinburgh have made ten changes including the returns of Darcy Graham and Magnus Bradbury as Richard Cockerill tries to bring all his talent on stream quickly enough to have them fit and ready for a home semi-final in just a few weeks. Chris Dean will captain the side.

A possible nod to resting some players is a first start for young talent Nathan Chamberlain at standoff while Charlie Shiel swaps in for Nic Groom at scrum-half after an impressive cameo off the bench last weekend. Roan Frostwick. Matt Gordon and Marshall Sykes are all in line to make their Edinburgh debuts from the bench.

For Glasgow, with the 1872 Cup decided and the playoffs missed, this will be the last, essentially meaningless (aside from bragging rights going into Scotland camp) fixture in a very curious season on and off the pitch.

Danny Wilson has continued with Huw Jones at full back after his appearance there last time out where there were few glaring errors but nothing at Stuart Hogg levels of special. He will, of course, take time to adjust. Nick Grigg continues to fill his preferred 13 shirt despite at least one very silly penalty against Edinburgh.

With the new breakdown interpretations in place Glasgow missed a scrapper on the deck so Tom Gordon will bring his excellent mullet to the party, allowing Matt Fagerson to slip across to his own more familiar role at Number 8.

Iain will follow up with reaction from the coaches later.

Edinburgh: Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham, James Johnstone, Chris Dean (capt), Duhan van der Merwe, Nathan Chamberlain, Charlie Shiel; Pierre Schoeman, Mike Willemse, Simon Berghan, Nick Haining, Jamie Hodgson, Magnus Bradbury, Hamish Watson, Viliame Mata.
Replacements: Stuart McInally , Rory Sutherland, WP Nel, Marshall Sykes, Luke Crosbie, Roan Frostwick, Jaco van der Walt, Matt Gordon.

Glasgow: Huw Jones, Tommy Seymour, Nick Grigg, Stafford McDowall, Ratu Tagive, Adam Hastings, George Horne; Oli Kebble, Fraser Brown (capt), Zander Fagerson, Richie Gray, Scott Cummings, Ryan Wilson, Tom Gordon , Matt Fagerson.
Replacements: George Turner, Charlie Capps, Enrique Pieretto, Rob Harley, Chris Fusaro, Ali Price, Pete Horne, Robbie Nairn.

Glasgow Players Unavailable for selection: Alex Allan, Adam Ashe, Hamish Bain, Mesu Dolokoto, Sam Johnson, Leone Nakarawa, Adam Nicol, Aki Seiuli, Kyle Steyn, Jale Vakaloloma.

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