Glasgow Warriors reaction: Franco Smith urges Edinburgh fans to back his team in URC semi

Smith’s team will play either the Bulls or Munster in the semi-finals of the United Rugby Championship at the national stadium next Saturday after they booked their place in the last four with a 33-21 win over Connacht in the quarter-finals at Scotstoun.

And there was further good news for the Warriors after the URC confirmed that Murrayfield would also stage the final - if Glasgow make it through. It gives them the perfect incentive next Saturday.

Murrayfield looked like it would be unavailable for the showpiece match because it is hosting a concert by country singer Zach Bryan on June 14, six days before the final. It was initially thought the stage and rigging couldn’t be dismantled in time but a solution now appears to be found.

A statement from the URC said: “The BKT United Rugby Championship can confirm that Glasgow Warriors will host their remaining Play-Off fixtures at Scottish Gas Murrayfield in Edinburgh.

Murrayfield is available for final

“As the No 1 ranked team after the league stage, Glasgow Warriors hold home advantage in the Semi-Finals and then the Grand Final should they progress.

“Since Glasgow’s No 1 ranking was confirmed, Scottish Rugby has worked with key stakeholders, alongside Glasgow Warriors and the BKT URC, to ensure Scottish Gas Murrayfield is available on June 20, if required.

“The team will play in the Scottish Capital as Warriors’ regular home venue, Scotstoun Stadium, is now under-going preparations for the 2026 Commonwealth Games while no other venues in Scotland that meet the league’s criteria are available over the coming weeks.”

For Smith, playing at the national stadium will allow more people to see his team and he hopes fans will put club loyalties to one side to back the Warriors.

‘We’re representing Scotland’

“I think we’ve got far enough now to say we’re representing Scotland and not just Glasgow any more,” said the head coach. “Most of the boys have played so many Tests at Murrayfield already. They know the surface and the atmosphere there. I hope we can get a lot of people in there for that game to make it special. It’s not often that a Scottish side can play a home semi-final there so hopefully we can make it a special night.

“I don’t expect Edinburgh fans to grab a Glasgow flag to swing around. But for them it will be a good entertaining opportunity and hopefully we can fill Murrayfield as that would be fantastic.”

The win over Connacht was hard fought, with captain Kyle Steyn leading by example with two tries in a man-of-the-match performance which also included a try-saving tackle on Josh Ioane and 50:22 kick. There were also scores from Patrick Schickerling, Josh McKay and Jare Oguntibeju and four conversions by George Horne.

The Irish visitors proved difficult opponents to shake off and the sides were tied at 7-7 at half-time. Cian Prendergast, Dave Heffernan and Finlay Bealham crossed for Connacht and Sam Gilbert converted all three tries.

For Smith, it was an important victory following the home loss to Toulon last month in the quarter-finals of the European Champions Cup.

‘Monkey of our backs’

“We’ve learned from the Toulon game and there was a lot of pressure on from that perspective,” said Smith. “We’ve now got that monkey off our back, I believe. We’re going into a different challenge. This competition this season has been really tough. It will be tough regardless of who we play.”

The Bulls will host Munster in the second quarter-final in Pretoria on Saturday lunchtime.

One concern for Smith was Horne picking up a hand injury and the scrum-half came off in the second half.

Horne worry

“We'll have a look, I think it's his hand and his thumb he got stood on,” said Smith. “I think the train of thought at that stage was we were two scores ahead and it's good to come and have a look what the damage is but currently there's no diagnosis done or prognosis. We'll have more clarity on Monday.”

Smith added: “I’m really happy with the result. We’ve played a lot of playoff rugby before but there are still some lessons to be learned from this. That’s going to be important for next week.

“We overplayed once or twice. We gave away the first try too easily. Then giving away a yellow card [for Alex Samuel] late in the game put us under unnecessary pressure. But we’ll take the win from tonight.

“You could see we hadn’t played for 10 days. We weren’t collision-ready in the first 10 or 15 minutes. But that got better. We ended up making enough tackles and they (Connacht) ended up making almost 250 tackles. So we’ve asked a lot of questions to tire them out. They are tenacious and resilient and we respect that on their side. The set-piece is very important and we know that’s where we will be challenged again next week.

“I must mention Kyle [Steyn]. I don’t like to single out players but the tackle he made changed the game for us. You need your leader to step up and he didn’t give up there. We turned the ball over and didn’t give away a try. And he can be very proud of that.”