Why Glasgow must make mark in Europe to be considered one of the best

Image caption,

Sione Tuipulotu leads Glasgow Warriors against Bulls on Saturday

"We want to keep expectations out of our environment" has been the mantra of Glasgow Warriors head coach Franco Smith this season. The form of his swashbuckling side is making that increasingly difficult.

Riding high at the top of the United Rugby Championship with four regular season matches remaining, having delivered a perfect Champions Cup pool stage with maximum points from their four matches, Glasgow have laid the foundations for an extraordinary season.

Some Warriors fans are even talking – or maybe just whispering – about an unprecedented URC and Champions Cup double, a fanciful notion at the start of the season when Smith was reshaping the squad following the departures of key players like Tom Jordan, Sebastian Cancelliere and Henco Venter.

Smith has been at pains to keep a lid on the rising excitement and plaudits surrounding his team, repeatedly pointing out that nothing has been won yet, and highlighting previous campaigns that have been similarly promising but ultimately yielded nothing in terms of trophies.

Now the real stuff starts, the business end of the season and knockout rugby when the Bulls come to Scotstoun on Saturday in the Champions Cup last 16. Warriors have a chance to set-up a home quarter-final in the European Cup for the first time in their history.

Outstanding victories over past champions Toulouse and Saracens, among others in the pool stage, secured second seeding and a potential path of home country ties (any semi-final would be played at Murrayfield) all the way until the final in Bilbao.

With another host of big names heading for the Scotstoun exit door this summer – Huw Jones, Adam Hastings and Jack Dempsey, among others – this could be Glasgow's greatest opportunity for a shot at European club rugby's biggest prize, and to establish themselves among the elites.

"The recognition they're getting this year and how they've played over the last couple of years, from the URC's point of view, it's there," former Warriors captain Fraser Brown told BBC Scotland.

"I still feel like in order for a Scottish team to be recognised in European rugby as a great team, you need to leave your mark on a European stage. So, I still think for Glasgow, even if they went on to win the URC this year, they need to make a mark in Europe.

"It's something that we've never done in order to be put up there in the conversation with some of the best in Europe.

"In terms of the players that are leaving in the summer, I do see this as certainly the biggest and best chance that Glasgow have had ever. Whether it's their best chance over the next couple of years? Probably."

'Bulls would love to put Glasgow back in their box'

If the URC standings are any sort of guide, with Glasgow top and the Bulls in eighth, then Warriors will be considered hot favourites to advance to the quarter-finals. They have won their past 11 home matches in all competitions and are unbeaten at Scotstoun in almost a year.

The last team to beat them on their own patch? The Bulls, last April in the URC. The teams have met six times since the South African side joined the competition, with three wins apiece.

In a tournament that struggles to generate rivalries across the five competing nations, Glasgow v Bulls is one that is genuinely compelling.

"The Bulls are very dangerous," says former Glasgow half-back Colin Gregor. "They have vast experience and real quality.

"They have big units up front - Cobus Wiese, Marcell Coetzee, a game-winner in Handre Pollard at 10 and a game-breaker in Kurt-Lee Arendse on the wing.

"There were rumours they were going to leave their big names at home but they have not done it. Fourteen Springboks in their travelling squad shows the intent they have.

"They've also got history with Warriors after Glasgow beat them in the 2024 final to win the URC in Pretoria. Bulls would love to put Glasgow back in their box with a statement win at Scotstoun on Saturday."

Glasgow are boosted by the return of captain Kyle Steyn to the starting team after injury, with Dan Lancaster preferred to Hastings at 10, while Stafford McDowall gets the nod at 13 over Jones, who misses out entirely.

They are selection calls that suggest Glasgow are tooling up for the huge physical battle the Bulls are sure to bring.

"It's a very simplistic gameplan for the Bulls - very powerful, very direct, very confrontational," says Brown.

"They'll have hard runners off nine and a very good set-piece. The scrum is going to be an absolute mammoth battleground for Glasgow. To be able to get parity there, it's going to be huge for them.

"If the Bulls get broken field, they've got such dangerous runners in their back three. So, it's going to be a tough game, a big challenge.

"I'd expect Glasgow to come through, if not comfortably, with a decent margin in the end. But, certainly, I think for 60, 65, 70 minutes, it could be a pretty intense battle."