Glasgow Warriors look to make most of Irish teams’ mandatory three-week rest

It’s a good time to be playing Irish teams in the United Rugby Championship and Glasgow Warriors will look to make it two wins from two when they take on Connacht in Galway on Saturday.

Sione Tuipulotu is back training with Glasgow Warriors after the Rugby World Cup and available for this weekend's match against Connacht. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Having beaten Leinster with a bonus point last weekend, Franco Smith’s side are looking to make capital while the provinces are without their World Cup stars. The IRFU has imposed a mandatory three-week rest period for players who represented the national side in France - encouraging news for their URC rivals. Glasgow, by contrast, have all their World Cup players back in training and have a full squad to choose from for the match at the Sportsground. Nigel Carolan, the Warriors attack coach, played down the absence of Connacht’s star turns, pointing out that they were just three of the club’s players in the Ireland squad, but it was a significant trio.

“They are not overly affected by the World Cup despite having three of Ireland’s form players in Bundee Aki, Mack Hansen and Finlay Bealham,” said Carolan. “But in terms of numbers, they won’t be that affected and they will have that cohesion from having a longer pre-season than us. They’ve new coaches in place so they’ve had time to bed in as well - we are expecting a tough game.”