Ryan Wilson: Rivalry with Edinburgh is huge for us

Glasgow Warriors co-captain, Ryan Wilson believes it is the perfect match for rugby to restart and says his squad will be really up for the derby clash.

Speaking on this week’s Official Scottish Rugby Podcast, Wilson, said: “The rivalry with Edinburgh is huge for us. Obviously, there’s a lot of new coaching staff at Glasgow and a lot of fresh faces there. You’ve got people like Kelly Brown who’ve come back in, he’s been part of those big battles so he will be telling us what it means.

“It’s always an awesome occasion but again strange one with no fans, no crowd. That’s my slight worry, everyone will be able to hear what I’m saying on the field. I’ll have Hamish Watson moaning at me again and Mike Adamson trying to calm me down!”

Preparations for this weekend’s match have been very different, with COVID-19 affecting sport across the world, and although Wilson is happy to be back training at Scotstoun he knows things aren’t quite back to normal just yet.

He said: “It’s been nice to be back at Scotstoun, as there were a lot of moans about traveling over to BT Murrayfield as you can imagine! When we went to Oriam it got better, more normal and then finally we got back to Scotstoun which has been brilliant.

“We’re doing our team meetings outside so we have to stop every time a train goes past, you know what it’s like they give you the ‘ole toot of the horn and Danny [Wilson] just stands there just shaking his head, it’s just another little thing that reminds you we’re not back to normal yet.”

The Warriors need to win both games against Edinburgh with maximum points and hope Ulster don’t pick up more than one point from their games against Connacht and Leinster in order to qualify for the semi-finals.

He added: “Other things have got to go our way with Ulster, we’ve got to see where we are after this first game, see what other teams have done and approach it from there.

“There are going to be some tired bodies on Sunday, six months out then a derby clash, we’re going to be pretty sore the next day.”

Earlier this week it was announced that Wilson will co-captain Glasgow for his third successive season alongside Scotland hooker Fraser Brown.

Wilson added: “It’s always an honour for me and like with Callum [Gibbins] last year when we were doing it together, it makes things a lot easier. I enjoy the co-captain side of things, it takes the pressure off a little bit, it gives you someone you can bounce off so that you’re going through the same stuff, it will be good.

“Fraser is a brilliant guy to have on and off the field as well, he brings a completely different side to what Callum brought. We were pretty similar, so two probably more different blokes going at it this year, I know which one will be more serious out of the two for us!”

Saturday’s match between Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh at BT Murrayfield will be shown live and exclusively on Premier Sports (kick-off 5.15pm).

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