Glasgow Warriors team to face Leinster planned in March as Ross Thompson absence addressed

Franco Smith is not a man who ever operates off the cuff which makes it not a huge surprise to learn he had a team in mind way back in March for Glasgow Warriors’ URC season opener against Leinster on Sunday.

The South African, of course, wouldn’t have known for sure at that point that Scotland wouldn’t progress beyond the World Cup pool stage, while his countryman Henco Venter wasn’t even announced as a Warriors signing until a month later.

Smith, though, is a calculating, methodical individual who leaves nothing to chance, with plans laid in place often months in advance. To that end, he hands a first competitive start to Venter at No 8, while the first batch of returning players from the World Cup – Zander Fagerson, Scott Cummings, Rory Darge, Kyle Steyn and Huw Jones – are all pressed immediately into action against an under-strength Leinster side.

“This plan I already made in March so we planned ahead,” revealed the head coach. “I explained to the players who didn’t go to the World Cup how we’d see things, but also gave the players who were involved in Scotland a strategy on how we are going to approach their re-entry into the club so that they can manage their game-time away from Scotstoun in a certain way.

“Obviously there were different starts depending on when they finished their World Cup [campaign] so the guys we have brought in now were planned from the start and they’ll have a two week break in a couple of weeks that the other boys have already taken.”

There is no place in the 23-man matchday squad for Ross Thompson. The fly-half was expected to force his way back into prominence this season after a lengthy injury lay-off, plus the departure in the summer of fellow No. 10, Domingo Miotti. Instead, it is Tom Jordan who starts against Leinster with Duncan Weir on the bench.

Smith explained: “Ross is not injured. He’s still 100 percent in our plans. The thing is we have three fly-halves currently here and they all work hard and train hard to play. I still feel Ross is not yet where he can be. He knows that from our side. He’s trained very well – he’s really intelligent and works very hard – so it is not about who is not picked. It is about who is picked for this weekend, that’s the most important thing.”

Glasgow Warriors team: McKay; Cancelliere, Jones, McDowall, Steyn; Jordan, Dobie; Kebble, Fraser, Z Fagerson, Peterson, Cummings, G Brown, Darge, Venter. Replacements: Matthews, McBeth, Sordoni, Samuel, Miller, Gordon, Horne, Weir.