The Glasgow Warriors will get their European Rugby Champions Cup campaign underway with a tricky home game against Saracens on Sunday the 14th of October.
We close out Round 1 of the 2018/19 European Rugby Champions Cup with what should be an epic encounter between the Glasgow Warriors and Saracens. Both teams will fancy their chances of advancing to the next round, but this game could have a huge bearing on which of the two sides ends up topping the pool.
Glasgow Warriors v Saracens
Sunday 14 October
Scoutstoun Stadium
To Win (80 Mins)
Glasgow 26/10
Draw 22/1
Saracens 2/7
Glasgow
The Warriors head into their opening fixture against Saracens off the back of two impressive PRO14 victories. These were much-needed as before them they were embarrassed by the Kings in South Africa going down 38-28 to the underdogs.
The two wins did come against much weaker opposition than ‘Sarries, however, as Glasgow beat the Dragons 29-13 and Zebre 36-8. While they were big wins, Saracens are unlikely to be as generous on defence as the Dragons and Zebre so Glasgow will have to be red-hot on attack this Sunday.
Saracens
2016/17 champions Saracens will be looking for a much faster start to this year’s campaign than the one they endured last season. They were actually rather lucky to advance to the knock-out phase during the last edition of the tournament.
The North Londoners struggled during the opening salvos of the 2017/18 season but their red-hot domestic form means they are far more likely to impress during the opening few rounds of this campaign than they did some 12 months ago.
Mark McCall’s men head into their opening European fixture in solid form having won their opening six English Premiership games. Their latest win was quite a hard-fought one though, as they scraped their way to a 20-25 victory over Harlequins.
Verdict: Saracens 2/7
Their big guns are starting to return to form with number eight Billy Vunipoala putting in a mammoth shift against Harlequins last week. I can see the burly English international spear heading a famous Saracens away win.
