Preview: Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby in URC Final Eight action

31 May 2022

Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby are both in URC Final Eight action on Saturday. Both sides head away from home having finished in 7th and 8th in the league table.

Glasgow are up first, taking on Leinster at the RDS Arena (kick of 3.15pm).

Victory over the defending champions would see Danny Wilson’s men earn home advantage for the URC semi-finals, meaning a first clash in front of the Warrior Nation since the 40-12 win over Zebre Parma on 1 April and the biggest league match in Glasgow since the 2019 Guinness PRO14 Final.

Warriors finished 8th in the URC table, amassing 10 wins and 50 points.

? “It's a one-off game and we’ve got the chance to turn over the top seeds. If we win, we’re back at home in front of our fans. That’s all the incentive we need."

Sione Tuipulotu is raring to go for this weekend ?#WhateverItTakes ⚔️?️https://t.co/xoxqMfhfFO

— Glasgow Warriors (@GlasgowWarriors) May 30, 2022

Ahead of the match, centre Sione Tuipulotu said: ““We’re all super focused on this weekend.

“We obviously had no game last week, so we’ve had a couple of weeks to prepare and zone in on what we need to do in Dublin on Saturday.

“We want to put in a performance that does the Glasgow jersey justice – we not only want to go out there and do ourselves proud, but we want to make the fans proud too.

“We know the RDS is a tough place and we’re going over as the underdogs, but we’re going out there with the goal of putting ourselves in the semi-finals.

“They’re a top-quality outfit, no question.

“They’ve got superstars across the park, and you don’t get into European finals by accident.

“We know their strengths, but we also know our own strengths and the talent that we have in the building at Scotstoun. This season, we haven’t put in a full 80-minute performance yet, and that’s a source of frustration. The goal for us is to do just that on Saturday.”

Then later on Saturday, Edinburgh travel to Cape Town to take on DHL Stormers (kick off 6pm).

Edinburgh make the journey to South Africa on the back of securing the 1872 Cup and the Scottish-Italian Shield by beating Glasgow 28-11 at BT Murrayfield in their last game.

The result also secured them 7th place in the URC table with 54 points, and a place in next season’s Champions Cup.

??? Get the latest from Head Coach Mike Blair as Edinburgh touch down in Cape Town.

? @Galbraith_Group // #URC pic.twitter.com/nfFtqEd5cc

— Edinburgh Rugby (@EdinburghRugby) May 30, 2022

Speaking ahead of the game, Head Coach Mike Blair said: “I believe it’s important to get in the right emotional space so we’re not thinking of the outcome of the game, we’re thinking about what it takes to put in place to get the outcome, not actually thinking about the outcome itself.

“They’re a hugely impressive team.

“They’ve got size and power up front and they’ve got speed and power in the back line, so they’ll be a really dangerous team and something we’ve got to be really wary of.