100 not out for Graeme

Graeme Morrison makes his 100th appearance for Glasgow
Glasgow centre Graeme Morrison will make his 100th appearance for the club when he steps out on the field to face Newport Gwent Dragons at Rodney Parade tomorrow night – one week before he celebrates his birthday at Firhill when Toulouse come to town.
Looking ahead to an exciting week ahead both on and off the field the Hong Kong born centre - who will celebrate his 26th birthday at the Warriors’ first home game of the 2008/09 Heineken Cup campaign against Toulouse - said: “It’s a massive honour to reach 100 games for Glasgow in what is my sixth season with the club. However, when your birthday lands on such an important match then it pretty much gets shelved until another time – let’s hope the result will give us all reason to celebrate.”

Warriors head coach Sean Lineen added: “I’ve been around a while to see him mature and grow and I’m proud to see him back in the Scotland squad. He’s very committed to this team and with his work rate, he’ll just keep getting better.”

The Warriors have already faced the Dragons in the Magners League this season posting a very close 12-6 victory in torrential rain.

However, despite the Warriors having the upper hand in terms of results, Lineen believes this game will be an entirely different affair.

“I think it’ll be a pretty brutal game. We know each other pretty well and managed to sneak a win the last time we were down when Dan had his kicking boots on in pretty atrocious conditions.

“However, that game will bear no resemblance to this one with all the hype and pressure that’s on both sides. There’s so much at stake.”

The Warriors led the Scottish charge in Europe last season with home and away victories over Viadana, a significant home win over Biarritz and two close encounters against Saracens. However, now that the Warriors have proven themselves amongst the biggest names in European rugby, Lineen want them to progress further.

“We had a good run in the Heineken Cup last season so it’s up to the players to show themselves and each other that they’re hungry to make further progress.”

Glasgow Warriors team to play Newport Gwent Dragons in the Heineken Cup at Rodney Parade on Saturday 11 October (kick-off 2:30pm)

15 Bernardo Stortoni

14 Lome Fa'atau
13 Max Evans
12 Graeme Morrison
11 Hefin O'Hare

10 Colin Gregor
9 Mark McMillan

1 Justin Va'a
2 Dougie Hall
3 Moray Low
4 Opeta Palepoi
5 Alastair Kellock CAPTAIN
6 Kelly Brown
7 John Barclay
8 Johnnie Beattie

Substitutes

16 Ed Kalman
17 Kevin Tkachuk
18 Tim Barker
19 Stevie Swindall
20 Andrew Henderson
21 Ruaridh Jackson
22 Richie Vernon

This article was posted on 10-Oct-2008, 12:03 by Hugh Barrow.