Glasgow’s Williamson fronts up as Bulls promise charge

URC: Glasgow Bulls vs. Warriors

Glasgow’s Scotsoun Stadium Date: Friday, April 25; Time: 19:35 BST

You wouldn’t be able to disagree when big Max Williamson refers to Friday night’s encounter between the Glasgow Warriors and the Bulls as a “massive battle” even though he wasn’t the size of a large tower block.

It doesn’t get much bigger until Williamson, who is recovering from four months of injury-related illness in Glasgow’s second row, wins. It’s a repeat of last year’s final and a clash of second and third places in the table this year.

Both the rhetoric and the stakes are high. When the fixtures were released, Bulls head coach Jake White claimed this week that everyone on his team’s wall had the game’s date printed on it.

It made reference to the anxiety Glasgow had over them in Pretoria last summer, when the Bulls took a 13-0 lead in the United Rugby Championship Grand Final only for the underdogs to retaliate and defeat them.

From the beginning of the pre-season, White of Friday night says, “I can promise you, 25 April was always going to be the game we were going to work hard for.”

They have thrown some gasoline on the fire themselves, to be fair to Glasgow. Prior to the start of the week, Franco Smith’s operation’s key coach, Nigel Carolan, compared Scotstoun to a slaughterhouse, spoke about the arrival of the Bulls.

That will provide the South Africans with more grist for their money than the last three URC finals. To be honest, Eddie Hearn couldn’t have done a better job of promoting this game at his most outrageously bad.

Williamson weighed in on Friday’s significance in a speech on the BBC Scotland Rugby Podcast. The margins are tight with only three league games remaining and only four points between Glasgow in second and the Bulls in third.

The Warriors are in a difficult position right now. Up to eight players from their magnificent side, which won the title last year, will miss this game for various reasons, most notably injury.

Williamson has been back on the field for a while, even from the bench, so Smith needed that. Williamson specifically desired this, too. He had a fantastic autumn of playing for Scotland against South Africa at Murrayfield, but he injured himself. Without him, the Six Nations came and went.

He claims that while it was obviously difficult, it also gave me a good opportunity to hurt myself in January.

I’ve played a lot of rugby in the past year, so it was a good opportunity to develop a little. That’s how I attempted to spin it, to be honest. Being injured gives me the benefit of feeling completely unaffected.

Then, what about these enraged Bulls? Williamson says, “Yeah, huge.” It’s enormous, you know, looking at the table. We are aware that they will be arriving in light of what transpired last year. This is the game for them, they’ve said it before. We’re also prepared for that.

We are aware that Friday night will be a battle. That is what it will be. They are well aware that they are visiting for a physical contest. We want to play rugby with them in a physical conflict.

“It will undoubtedly be a feisty game,” he declared. We won’t stand back and let them do it because they always bring their physicality.

More clean breaks, more turnovers won, and more bonus points are all statistically higher for and against, as well as more tries for and fewer tries against.

You can’t put a price on aggression and rage for victory, but all the statistics indicate that they are the favorites to win. No information exists that can demonstrate the kind of unadulterated desire that White has described.