FRANCO SMITH will have all of his Scotland players available for Glasgow Warriors’ away trip to take Leinster on Saturday – but he is likely to rest tight-head prop Zander Fagerson, scrum-half Ali Price and back-rower Matt Fagerson who started all four of Scotland’s Autumn Test matches.
No.8 Jack Dempsey, centre Sione Tuipulotu, and hookers Fraser Brown and George Turner could also be given the weekend off. “We’ll obviously look to manage the players and be smart about that, but they are all available,” said the head coach. “Common sense must prevail at this stage and after the team announcement I’ll maybe have more to say around that.
“But the club must go forward and here must be growth and there must be responsibility shared if we want to become a great club in Europe. We’ve got a long-term mission and a vision which involves winning every match we play so our eyes are never off that objective.”
Warriors were boosted yesterday by the news that centre Sam Johnson, utility-back Huw Jones and back-row Ally Miller have returned to training after injury – but they are not expected to feature this weekend.
However, it wasn’t such positive news for Argentinean tight-head prop Enrique Pieretto, who hasn’t played yet this season due to a shoulder injury. He has now undergone surgery and will be out of action for the remainder of this season.
A medical update issued by the club also confirmed the second-row Scott Cummings has had surgery on the broken toe which kept him it the Autumn Test series andwon’t play until the New Year.
Back-row Ryan Wilson is being assessed and monitored on a knee injury sustained against Benetton, while Duncan Weir has a minor calf injury and is expected to be unavailable for the club’s two upcoming BKT URC matches and his fellow fly-half Domingo Miotti will miss this weekend’s game with a minor knee strain.
Meanwhile, recent back-row signing Cameron Neild and prop Nathan McBeth have begun to work through the return to play protocols after sustaining head injuries while playing in the club’s training game against Edinburgh last week.
Allan Dell (calf), Thomas Gordon (calf) and Rory Darge (ankle) all continue their rehabilitation for their respective long-term injuries.
