Glasgow Warriors

Glasgow Warriors
Full name Glasgow Warriors
Founded amateur 1872 (1872)
professional 1996 (1996)[1]
Location Glasgow, Scotland
Ground(s) Scotstoun Stadium (Capacity: 7,351[2] using additional temporary seating)
Chairman Charles Shaw
Coach(es) Gregor Townsend
Captain(s) Jonny Gray
Henry Pyrgos
Most caps Graeme Morrison (176)
Top scorer Tommy Hayes (1131)
Most tries D.T.H. van der Merwe (31)
League(s) Guinness Pro12
2015–16 3rd
Team kit
2nd kit
Official website
www.glasgowwarriors.org
Current season

Glasgow Warriors are one of the two professional rugby teams from Scotland. The team plays in the Pro12 and the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments along with its oldest rivals, Edinburgh Rugby. The Glasgow Warriors team plays its home games at Scotstoun Stadium.[3][4] In May 2015 they won the Pro12 title and became the first Scottish team to win a major trophy in rugby union's professional era.[5]

History

Glasgow Warriors are a continuation of the amateur Glasgow District side founded in 1872.

For the history of Glasgow as an amateur district side see:

Reshaped as a professional club in 1996, Glasgow Warriors were originally known as Glasgow Rugby before rebranding as Glasgow Caledonians in 1998 by a merger with the Caledonian Reds. They dropped the Caledonians to become Glasgow Rugby in 2001 again and finally rebranded as the Glasgow Warriors in 2005.

Originally based at Hughenden till 2007, the Warriors moved to Firhill in 2007–08 season (with a brief sojourn there also in 2005–06.) In the summer of 2012 Glasgow Warriors moved from Firhill to Scotstoun, which had previously been the club's training base.[6]

District Sides

Scotland had four District Sides:- North and Midlands; South; Glasgow District and Edinburgh District. Glasgow and Edinburgh were formed in 1872 and played the world's first ever inter-district match in that year.[7] The professional sides Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby are a continuation of these district sides and to mark the world's oldest derby they play for the 1872 Cup every year (since season 2007–08; when the collapse of the Border Reivers left Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby as Scotland's only two professional teams).

The district sides capped the best amateur players from their area's club sides to play inter-district matches and matches against touring sides. Unlike the Scottish clubs (and Ireland's provincial sides), the Scottish district sides had no settled home and were not members of their Rugby Union.[7] This meant when Scottish rugby embraced professionalism it was not clear if a model based on districts or clubs would be used.

Professional model: Club or District

It was not clear which route professionalism would go in Scotland. This created a turbulent start for professionalism in Scotland and left Scotland far behind fast-embracing Ireland in the set up of its professional structure. The first season of the Heineken Cup in 1995–96 was run without any Scottish teams in European competition.

An EGM was held by the SRU for its member clubs to debate the matter and try and settle the issue on the 8 February 1996. The SRU management was in favour of districts and its Vice-President Fred McLeod and Jim Telfer argued for the proposal. In favour of the clubs to be represented in Europe were former Scotland internationalists Gavin Hastings and Keith Robertson. Critically a speech from the floor from Brian Simmers of Glasgow Academicals – arguing that Hastings and Robertson didn't have the best interests of Scottish rugby at heart and they were arguing only for their own clubs – swung the debate and the District model won by 178 to 24.[7]

The four amateur district teams Glasgow, Edinburgh, South of Scotland and North and Midlands were to become the professional sides Glasgow Warriors, Edinburgh Rugby, Border Reivers and the Caledonia Reds.

Formation of Glasgow Warriors

Glasgow Rugby was created in 1996 to compete in the Heineken Cup, because the Scottish Rugby Union did not think that Scottish club sides would be able to compete against the best teams from France and England.[8] Glasgow, however, did not compete in the Heineken Cup until the 1997–98 season.

Glasgow and the other three Scottish districts competed in the Scottish Inter-District Championship to determine their European Qualifying; the leagues positions determining whether they entered the Heineken Cup or the Challenge Cup.

Merger with Caledonia Reds

Because of the SRU's high debt, partly as a result of the redevelopment of Murrayfield there was a recognised need for further reorganisation. After two seasons, Glasgow merged with the Caledonia Reds to form a team that would be known as Glasgow Caledonians.[9]

The forced merger came just after Glasgow had shown some signs of progress by qualifying for the Heineken Cup quarter-final play-offs, in which they suffered their heaviest defeat (90–19) to Leicester Tigers.[10] The intention was that the combined strength of the new teams would build on such modest progress and initially some very successful results were achieved, including a 1999 win against Leicester (30–17), but overall the team lacked consistency.

Celtic League formation

Concerns about attendances at games became a concern again at the time of the 1999 World Cup, by which time a Welsh-Scottish League had been announced. In essence, this would be the Welsh Premier Division augmented by the two Scottish sides.[11]

Main article: Welsh-Scottish League

The 'Caledonian' label was dropped at the start of the 2001–02 season, with the team name becoming once again Glasgow Rugby.[12]

The Celtic League began in the autumn of 2001 with the addition of the four Irish provincial teams; Glasgow reached the semi-finals of the inaugural competition, but struggled thereafter.

Main article: Pro12

In 2004–05 Glasgow had been fifth in the Celtic League, the best placing of the three Scottish teams that existed at that time.[13]

Starting with the 2005–06 season, the team was again rebranded, this time as the Glasgow Warriors.[8]

Pro12

The Celtic League was rebranded as the Pro12 league in season 2011–12. This was to better reflect the entry of the Italian sides into the Celtic League.

The Pro12 league format has a top four play-off system to decide the champions.

Since the Pro12 started in season 2011–12, Glasgow Warriors are the only team that have made the play-offs in every year.

Records and Achievements

For Amateur era see:

Honours

Season standings

Competing as Glasgow Warriors unless stated.
Competing as ᵜ Glasgow Rugby.
Competing as ᵝ Glasgow Caledonian Reds.

League competitions

Scottish Inter-District Championship Welsh-Scottish League Celtic League Pro12
Season Pos Pld W D L F A +/- BP Pts Notes
1996–97 ᵜ 2nd 32016351+12-4
1997–98 ᵜ 2nd 32016629+37-4(second on tries scored)
1998–99 ᵝ 2nd 31023297-65-2(Edinburgh won Tri-series 2-1)
1999–00 ᵝ 10th 228113488621-133-25
2000–01 ᵝ 7th 2212010645608+37-36
2001–02 ᵜ 8th 208111475527-52-25
2001–02 ᵜ 3rd in Pool A 7412204172+32-13(lost semi-final to Leinster)
2002–03 ᵜ 3rd 8215144210-66111
2002–03 ᵜ 2nd in Pool B 7502216166+50323(lost quarter-final to Ulster)
2003–04 ᵜ 11th 226115442614-172632
2004–05 ᵜ 6th 208111465466-11145
2005–06 11th 225015371439-68937(All deemed + 2 games: 8 pts)
2006–07 7th 201109434419+15549
2007–08 5th 181017340349-9446
2008–09 7th 187011349375-26937
2009–10 3rd 181125390321+69351(lost semi-final to Ospreys)
2010–11 11th 226115401543-142733
2011–12 4th 221345445321+124565(lost semi-final to Leinster)
2012–13 3rd 221606541324+2171276(lost semi-final to Leinster)
2013–14 2nd & RU 221804484309+175779(lost final to Leinster)
2014–15 1st & CH 221615540360+180975(defeated Munster in final)
2015–16 3rd 221317557380+1771472(lost semi-final to Connacht)

European competitions

European Challenge Cup Heineken Cup / European Champions Cup
Season Pos Pld W D L F A +/- BP Pts Notes
1996–97 ᵜ 5th in Pool A 5104113202-89-2
1997–98 ᵜ 2nd in Pool 2 6303132167-35-6(lost Qtr-Final play-off to Leicester Tigers)
1998–99 ᵝ 4th in Pool 4 6204121187-66-4
1999–00 ᵝ 3rd in Pool 1 6204130179-49-4
2000–01 ᵝ 4th in Pool 6 6105137227-90-2
2001–02 ᵜ 3rd in Pool 5 6213126198-72-5
2002–03 ᵜ 3rd in Pool 3 620486185-99-4
2003–04 ᵜ 2nd round 430110766+41--(lost to Saracens on aggregate)
2004–05 ᵜ 4th in Pool 3 6006107186-7922
2005–06 4th in Pool 5 6105131190-5926
2006–07 2nd in Pool 2 641120472+132422(lost to Saracens in Qtr-Final)
2007–08 3rd in Pool 4 6303130127+3416
2008–09 3rd in Pool 5 6204134150-16412
2009–10 3rd in Pool 2 6204120140-2019
2010–11 3rd In Pool 6 6303116141-25012
2011–12 2nd in Pool 3 6213131190-59212
2012–13 4th in Pool 4 610570105-3526
2013–14 4th in Pool 2 620498130-32311
2014–15 3rd in Pool 4 630310884+24315
2015–16 3rd in Pool 3 630311496+18214

Finals Results

Pro12

Date Winners Score Runners-up Venue Spectators
31 May 2014 Leinster Rugby 34–12 Glasgow Warriors RDS Arena, Dublin 19,200
30 May 2015 Glasgow Warriors 31–13 Munster Rugby Kingspan Stadium, Belfast 17,057

Partial list of games played against international opposition

For international games in amateur era see: Glasgow District
Competing as Glasgow Warriors unless stated. Scores and results list Glasgow Warrior's points tally first.
Competing as ᵜ Glasgow Rugby. Competing as ᵝ Glasgow Caledonian Reds.

Year Date Opponent Venue Result Score Tour
1998 10 November  South Africa Firhill Stadium, Glasgow Loss ᵝ 9–62 1998 South Africa rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland
1998 18 November Māori people Māori All Blacks McDiarmid Park, Perth Loss ᵝ 15–53 Preview Report
1998 24 November  Fiji Firhill Stadium, Glasgow Win ᵝ 41–22 Preview Report
1999 12 August Uruguay Uruguay A Fletcher's Fields, Markham, Ontario Win ᵝ 68–8 Report
2006 13 November Scotland Scotland U20 Meggetland Sports Complex, Edinburgh Win 33-19 Report
2015 29 August  Canada Graves-Oakley Memorial Park, Halifax [14] Loss 12–19 2015 Rugby World Cup warm-up matches
2016 30 August Canada Canada A Bridgehaugh Park, Stirling Win 63–0 Preview Report

Current standings

Pro12

2016–17 Pro12
Team Played Won Drawn Lost Points for Points against Points diff Tries for Tries against Try bonus Losing bonus Points
1 Ireland Munster 10 8 0 2 267 129 +138 34 15 4 1 37
2 Ireland Leinster 10 8 0 2 264 183 +81 34 24 4 1 37
2 Wales Ospreys 10 7 0 3 315 167 +148 45 21 7 1 36
4 Wales Scarlets 10 7 0 3 222 174 +48 28 19 4 0 32
5 Ireland Ulster 9 6 0 3 192 146 +46 25 18 2 2 28
6 Scotland Glasgow Warriors 10 5 0 5 223 199 +24 30 24 4 3 27
7 Wales Cardiff Blues 10 5 0 5 219 248 −29 25 30 1 1 22
8 Ireland Connacht 9 4 0 5 176 190 −14 22 23 3 1 20
9 Wales Newport Gwent Dragons 10 3 0 7 170 237 −67 19 29 1 2 15
10 Scotland Edinburgh 10 3 0 7 213 236 −23 28 28 1 1 14
11 Italy Zebre 8 1 0 7 118 253 −135 12 35 0 4 8
12 Italy Benetton Treviso 10 1 0 9 125 342 −217 14 48 1 1 6
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:[15]
  1. number of matches won;
  2. the difference between points for and points against;
  3. the number of tries scored;
  4. the most points scored;
  5. the difference between tries for and tries against;
  6. the fewest number of red cards received;
    7.
  7. the fewest number of yellow cards received.

Green background (rows 1 to 4) are play-off places, and earn a place in the 2017–18 European Rugby Champions Cup.
Blue background indicates teams outside the play-off places, that earn a place in the European Rugby Champions Cup.

    European Champions Cup

    Team
    		 P W D L PF PA Diff TF TA TB LB Pts
    Ireland Munster 1 1 0 0 38 17 +21 5 2 1 0 5
    Scotland Glasgow Warriors 2 1 0 1 59 51 +8 7 6 1 0 5
    England Leicester Tigers 2 1 0 1 40 59 –19 3 7 0 0 4
    France Racing 92 1 0 0 1 17 27 –10 2 2 0 0 0

    Coaches & Management

    Coaches

    Position Name Nationality
    Head Coach Gregor Townsend  Scotland
    Assistant Coach Matt Taylor  Scotland
    Assistant Coach Kenny Murray  Scotland
    Assistant Coach Dan McFarland  England
    Assistant Coach Mike Blair  Scotland
    Elite Development Coach Iain Monaghan  Scotland
    Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Stuart Yule  Scotland
    Strength and Conditioning Coach Thibault Giroud  France

    Management

    Position Name Nationality
    Chairman Charles Shaw  Scotland
    Managing Director Nathan Bombrys  USA
    Advisory Board Member Walter Malcolm  Scotland
    Advisory Board Member Paul Taylor  Scotland
    Advisory Board Member Jim Preston  Scotland
    Advisory Board Member Douglas McCrea  Scotland
    Advisory Board Member Alan Lees  Scotland
    Scottish Rugby:
    Director of Commercial Operations,
    Communications and Public Affairs    		 Dominic McKay  Scotland

    Current squad

    Senior squad

    Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

    Player Position Union
    Fraser Brown Hooker Scotland Scotland
    Corey Flynn Hooker New Zealand New Zealand
    Pat MacArthur Hooker Scotland Scotland
    James Malcolm Hooker Scotland Scotland
    Alex Allan Prop Scotland Scotland
    Zander Fagerson Prop Scotland Scotland
    Jarrod Firth Prop New Zealand New Zealand
    Ryan Grant Prop Scotland Scotland
    Sila Puafisi Prop Tonga Tonga
    D'Arcy Rae Prop Scotland Scotland
    Gordon Reid Prop Scotland Scotland
    Djustice Sears-Duru Prop Canada Canada
    Brian Alainu'uese Lock Samoa Samoa
    Scott Cummings Lock Scotland Scotland
    Jonny Gray Lock Scotland Scotland
    Greg Peterson Lock United States United States
    Tim Swinson Lock Scotland Scotland
    Tjiuee Uanivi Lock Namibia Namibia
    Hugh Blake (loan out) Flanker Scotland Scotland
    Simone Favaro Flanker Italy Italy
    Chris Fusaro Flanker Scotland Scotland
    Rob Harley Flanker Scotland Scotland
    Adam Ashe Number 8 Scotland Scotland
    Langilangi Haupeakui Number 8 United States United States
    Ruaridh MacKenzie Number 8 Scotland Scotland
    Josh Strauss Number 8 Scotland Scotland
    Ryan Wilson Number 8 Scotland Scotland
    Player Position Union
    Grayson Hart Scrum-half Scotland Scotland
    Nemia Kenatale Scrum-half Fiji Fiji
    Ali Price Scrum-half Scotland Scotland
    Henry Pyrgos Scrum-half Scotland Scotland
    Rory Clegg ⚓ Fly-half England England
    Finn Russell Fly-half Scotland Scotland
    Hagen Schulte* Fly-half New Zealand New Zealand
    Mark Bennett Centre Scotland Scotland
    Alex Dunbar Centre Scotland Scotland
    Nick Grigg ⚓ Centre Scotland Scotland
    Peter Horne Centre Scotland Scotland
    Sam Johnson Centre Australia Australia
    Fraser Lyle ⚓ Centre Scotland Scotland
    Richie Vernon Centre Scotland Scotland
    Junior Bulumakau ⚓ Wing Scotland Scotland
    Rory Hughes Wing Scotland Scotland
    Lee Jones Wing Scotland Scotland
    Sean Lamont Wing Scotland Scotland
    Leonardo Sarto Wing Italy Italy
    Tommy Seymour Wing Scotland Scotland
    Ratu Tagive Wing Australia Australia
    Stuart Hogg Fullback Scotland Scotland
    Peter Murchie Fullback Scotland Scotland

    Academy players

    Scottish Rugby Academy players who have been assigned to a professional club are Stage 3 players.[16] The Stage 3 players assigned to Glasgow Warriors for the season 2016-17 are below.

    Academy players promoted in the course of the season are listed with the main squad.

    Note: Flags indicate national union as has been defined under WR eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-WR nationality.

    Player Position Union
    Cameron Fenton (loan out) Hooker Scotland Scotland
    Jamie Bhatti Prop Scotland Scotland
    Callum Hunter-Hill (loan out) Lock Scotland Scotland
    Sam Thomson Lock Scotland Scotland
    Bruce Flockhart Flanker Scotland Scotland
    Matt Smith Flanker Scotland Scotland
    Lewis Wynne Flanker Scotland Scotland
    Matt Fagerson Number 8 Scotland Scotland
    Player Position Union
    George Horne ⚓ Scrum-half Scotland Scotland
    Patrick Kelly (loan out) Centre Scotland Scotland
    Robert Beattie Wing Scotland Scotland

    Notable former coaches & management

    Former Head coaches

    Coach Period(s)
    Scotland Lineen, SeanSean Lineen 03/2006 – 06/2012
    Scotland Campbell, HughHugh Campbell 04/2003 – 03/2006
    New Zealand Searancke, KiwiKiwi Searancke 06/2002 – 04/2003
    Scotland Dixon, RichieRichie Dixon 01/1999 – 06/2002
    New Zealand Robertson, KeithKeith Robertson 11/1997 – 01/1999
    New Zealand Greene, KevinKevin Greene 1996 – 11/1997

    Former Assistant Coaches

    Assistant Coach Period(s)
    Scotland Munro, ShadeShade Munro 04/2003 – 06/2015
    New Zealand Mercer, GaryGary Mercer 06/2005 – 06/2012
    Scotland Lineen, SeanSean Lineen 04/2003 – 03/2006
    Australia Anderson, SteveSteve Anderson 06/2002 – 04/2003
    Scotland Moffat, RobRob Moffat 01/1999 – 06/2002
    New Zealand Macpherson, GordonGordon Macpherson 1996 – 04/2003

    Former Managing Director / Chief Executive Officers

    Managing Director / CEO Period(s)
    Scotland Baillie, KennyKenny Baillie 10/2009 – 09/2011
    Scotland Riddoch, IanIan Riddoch 07/2007 – 07/2009
    Scotland Jordan, DavidDavid Jordan 07/1997 – 01/2005

    Notable former players

    Former Club Captains

    Club Captain Period(s)
    Scotland Kellock, AlAl Kellock 2006 – 2015
    Scotland Petrie, JonJon Petrie 2004 – 2006
    Scotland Mather, CameronCameron Mather 2003 – 2004
    Scotland Nicol, AndyAndy Nicol 1999 – 2003
    Scotland Bulloch, GordonGordon Bulloch 1996 – 1999

    The Centurions

    Former players who have reached the 100 caps mark for Glasgow Warriors [17]

    British and Irish Lions from Glasgow Warriors

    The following former Glasgow players, in addition to representing Scotland, have also represented the British and Irish Lions.

    Scotland

    The following (not previously listed above) former Glasgow players have represented Scotland at full international level.

    Notable non-Scottish players

    The following is a list of notable non-Scottish (not previously listed above) international representative former Glasgow players:

    Argentina

    Australia

    Bahamas

    Canada

    Cook Islands

    Fiji

    Georgia

    Ireland

    New Zealand

    Samoa

    Tonga

    USA

    Zimbabwe

    Notable also outside of rugby

    The following is a list of notable (not previously listed above) former Glasgow players who have achieved notability in fields outwith rugby:

    Personnel honours and records

    Celtic League Team of the Year

    Pro12 Team of the Year

    References

    1. ↑ "Glasgow Warriors". rugbystore.co.uk.
    2. ↑ "Glasgow Warriors vs Leicester Tigers". glasgowwarriors.org.
    3. ↑ "New signing Byron looks to lord it at Scotstoun". Now Rugby. 19 April 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
    4. ↑ "Scottish rugby chiefs eye up Scotstoun Stadium for Tonga friendly". Daily Record. 16 May 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
    5. ↑ English, Tom. "Pro12 final: Glasgow Warriors 31–13 Munster". BBC Sport. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
    6. ↑ "Glasgow set up Leinster tie". Irish Independent. 5 May 2012.
    7. 1 2 3 Jim Telfer. Looking back... for once. ISBN 1-84596-062-9.
    8. 1 2 rugby.visitscotland.com. "Glasgow Warriors trivia". VisitScotland.com. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
    9. ↑ Neil Drysdale (26 October 2008). "Caledonia Reds history". The Sunday Times. London. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
    10. ↑ Tony Wallace (2 November 1997). "Leicester 90 – Glasgow 19". The Independent. London. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
    11. ↑ "Celtic League history". 188RugbyUnion. 20 May 2009. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
    12. ↑ "Scottish clubs renamed". BBC Sport. 8 August 2001. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
    13. ↑ "2004/05 Celtic League". Magners League. Retrieved 14 September 2009.
    14. ↑ "Halifax rugby turf deemed unsafe, international game forced to move". cbc.ca. 27 August 2015.
    15. ↑ Competition Rule 3.5 "Summary of Key Rules". Pro12. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
    16. ↑ "BT Sport Scottish Rugby Academies".
    17. ↑ http://www.glasgowwarriors.org/sites/default/files/editor/docs/gwst-1415_v2_lores.pdf
    18. 1 2 3 4 "2013 RaboDirect PRO12 Dream Team Has Lions Flavour". pro12rugby.com.
    19. 1 2 "RaboDirect Pro12 Dream Team 2011/2012". therugbyblog.com.
    20. 1 2 "2013 RaboDirect PRO12 Dream Team Has Lions Flavour". pro12rugby.com.
    21. ↑ "Pro12".
    22. ↑ http://www.pro12rugby.com/final/19739.php#PTKuADhSwAJIdzQh.97
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