{"id":1168852,"date":"2026-08-25T17:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1168852\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:08:12","slug":"glasgow-updates-on-ritchie-van-der-merwe-and-team-for-newcastle-and-bath-friendlies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1168852\/","title":{"rendered":"Glasgow updates on Ritchie, van der Merwe and team for Newcastle and Bath friendlies"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ankle injury that curtailed the end of his solitary season with Perpignan in France and ruled him out of Scotland\u2019s Nations Championship series continues to trouble the now 30-year-old. But Glasgow defence coach Scott Forrest<\/strong>\u00a0believes it won\u2019t be long before the former Edinburgh back-rower is back making an impact for both (new) club and country.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, I think Jamie\u2019s obviously, for probably personal reasons, family reasons, made the decision to come back to Scotland,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re delighted to have him here. He\u2019s a top-quality international player. We\u2019re delighted to have him involved. I think if he was fit over the summer, he may well have been named in that Scotland squad. We fully expect him to be involved if he\u2019s fit. One, involved with us, but also to be involved with Scotland in the second part of the Nations Championship and the Six Nations going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van der Merwe\u2019s arrival in Scotland has been delayed due to Pumas\u2019 involvement in the Currie Cup. He started at open-side in his team\u2019s 38-14 loss to Griquas last weekend, was shown an early yellow card for head-on-head contact before being replaced after 52 minutes. Pumas\u2019 next match is against the Cheetahs on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cRuwald\u2019s still playing Currie Cup so he\u2019s not in the building now,\u201d added Forrest. \u201cBut again, he\u2019s playing right now, which is good. We\u2019ve not got an exact date [on his arrival] because it will just depend on if he gets to the play-offs. But again, by the time he comes in, everyone\u2019s going to be back in the building. So he\u2019ll have a bit of time just to get up to speed with how we do things here.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will likely be two other Glasgow debutants in the weeks ahead. Neither Tavi Tuipulotu<\/strong> nor Charlie Savala<\/strong> played a minute of competitive rugby last season after signing last summer, the pair sidelined with serious injuries for the duration of the campaign. Both, though, are now fit and showing up well in pre-season. Tuipulotu, Sione\u2019s youngest brother, is expected to provide a third option at hooker behind Gregor Hiddleston<\/strong> and Seb Stephen<\/strong>, while Savala will compete with Dan Lancaster<\/strong> and Matt Urwin<\/strong> for the 10 shirt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are like new signings,\u201d added Forrest. \u201cIt\u2019s like having two new players in the building. Physically, they look unbelievable in terms of the work that they\u2019ve put in. That\u2019s tough, to be out for a full year. But the work that both Tavi and Sav have put in over the whole of last season and the off-season, that\u2019s been really encouraging because they\u2019re training really well. Tavi especially, just some of the movement he had on the pitch today, especially from a defensive side of the game \u2013 he was excellent in training. So there\u2019s a bit of an excitement there around seeing both of them play.\u201d<\/p>\n

After two weeks at Burnbrae, the squad is now in a \u201creset week\u201d where they are expected to work on training programmes in their own time. The Scotland internationals will rejoin the others from Monday but it will be those who are already deep into their preparations that will take to the field to play the Newcastle Red Bulls at Kingston Park a week on Saturday (September 5) and Bath at Old Anniesland on September 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we come back in, which is right at the end of August, start of September, everyone will be back in the building then,\u201d conformed Forrest. \u201cSo those boys that were on tour with Scotland, they\u2019ve got another [week]. But, to be honest, we\u2019ve seen most of them because that\u2019s all of them are back in doing their own individual running and most of them are using this as a training base.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group that\u2019s been in training, that\u2019s the group that\u2019s going to play against Newcastle. We\u2019ve already started those conversations with the boys around what that team will look like for Newcastle, just to get people ready for it. And that\u2019s probably going to be the core of the team that will play against Bath as well. Part of it is we want to give these guys an opportunity. They\u2019ve worked hard over the off-season, they\u2019ve come back in, they\u2019ve trained really well.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that first league game [away to Munster on September 26], about a month or so away, that\u2019s when we\u2019ll start to blend the team a little bit which is exciting because you\u2019ve got a lot of good young boys there that have got an opportunity to put their hand up. This is their main window to go and do that. The Scotland boys, because of what they\u2019ve done over the summer, playing those Test matches, there\u2019s no real need for them to play in the pre-season games. They\u2019ve had their chance to reset physically and mentally. Now they\u2019re building back up. And hopefully the plan works and we\u2019re ready to hit the ground running against Munster.\u201d<\/p>\n

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