Glasgow assistant coach Nigel Carolan is confident that the squad will give a good account of themselves in Saturday’s pre-season friendly against Zebre despite a lengthy injury list.
The Warriors yesterday named a dozen players who will miss out on the Scotstoun match against the Italians because of various ailments, and with 16 others away on Rugby World Cup duty, the coaches will need to press some inexperienced players into service.
However, Carolan believes that will be no bad thing, and is confident that in general the squad is in a good place. “We’re happy to play some young guys,” he said. “I’ve been really impressed this year with a lot of the academy guys, so right now, if there was a group of them getting out onto the pitch on Saturday night, I’d be really excited.
“The lads came back from their extended break in fantastic physical condition, and really rested mentally and emotionally. Inevitably when you start to ramp things up there’s going to be a couple of injuries here and there, but overall the squad’s in a great state. We’re ready to play now.”
Of the 12 players named yesterday, only hooker Fraser Brown and lock JP du Preez are longer-term concerns. The others who will miss the Zebre match and in some cases next week’s away game against Ulster are: forwards Allan Dell, Thomas Gordon, Oli Kebble, Sintu Manjezi, Enrique Pieretto and Murphy Walker, and backs Sean Kennedy, Stafford McDowall, Josh McKay and Logan Trotter.
With Richie Gray and Scott Cummings away with Scotland and both Du Preez and Manjezi out of action, the second row is the main concern for the coaches. However, Scotland Under-20 internationals Alex Samuel and Max Williamson are more than ready to take over, according to Carolan.
“Does it leave us light? A little bit for now,” he admitted. "But Alex and Max have been tremendous - Alex is calling lineouts and has matured as a rugby player, while Max got good exposure with Doncaster last season and is a lot more battle-hardened coming into us this year. And we’ll get some short-term cover there if we need it.”
Meanwhile, Edinburgh have named seven players who will miss both of their pre-season friendlies - at home to Connacht on Friday then against Bath a week later - through injury. Forwards Luan de Bruin, Dave Cherry, Ben Muncaster and Marshall Sykes are all sidelined along with backs James Lang, Harry Paterson and Tim Swiel.
