{"id":77892,"date":"2025-05-06T01:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T01:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/77892\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T01:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T01:31:11","slug":"pete-murchie-backing-glasgow-injured-trio-to-make-british-and-irish-lions-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/77892\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Murchie backing Glasgow injured trio to make British and Irish Lions squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ScotlandPete Murchie is backing Sione Tuipulotu to make the British and Irish Lions squad. Image: \u00a9 Craig Watson –
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PETE MURCHIE is confident it won\u2019t a case of \u201cout of sight, out of mind\u201d when it comes to Glasgow players being selected for the British and Irish Lions squad.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lions head coach Andy Farrell<\/strong> will reveal his selection on Thursday for this summer\u2019s touring party to Australia, with fears among some supporters that injuries and other factors might cause Scottish representation to be much smaller than had been initially expected.<\/p>\n

All of those widely considered to be virtual certainties to be picked from the two Scottish pro clubs \u2013 Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones, Zander Fagerson <\/strong>and Duhan van der Merwe<\/strong> \u2013 are currently injured and at different stages of their rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

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Tuipulotu and Jones could return for Glasgow this weekend for the URC match away to Benetton in Treviso although that seems less of a guarantee than seemed the case a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Regardless, Murchie believes the Warriors trio all have \u201cenough credit in the bank\u201d to warrant selection despite their recent inactivity.<\/p>\n

The defence coach said: \u201cWe\u2019ve always had pretty good representation across a few tours now. Let\u2019s hope we get as many as possible. I think there\u2019s a good few that have got a good shout. Sometimes there\u2019ll be tight decisions all over the place, I\u2019m sure, for those that are selecting the squad. But I think there\u2019s a number of our guys that would likely have been involved in conversations. It just depends how they want the make-up of the squad to look.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you take three looseheads? Do you take two looseheads? Do you take a hybrid back row? Do you take fly-half cover? There\u2019s all these things that sometimes aren\u2019t completely in your control, depending on that final make-up of the squad. But hopefully we get a good number contested.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to think that they [those currently injured] all have enough credit in the bank for what they\u2019ve done over a prolonged period of time and what they\u2019ve done at the top end of the game very recently. We\u2019re talking about injuries where we\u2019re expecting them to be able to play a full part in training and all of [the Lions\u2019] games. If that wasn\u2019t the case, then maybe it\u2019s a different story. But you could argue they\u2019re going to be coming back fresh and at the right time of the year to still get a good run of games behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuipulotu had been spoken about as a possible Lions captain before he sustained the pec muscle that kept him out of the Six Nations and beyond. And Murchie believes having Scotland forward coach John Dalziel<\/a> as part of Farrell\u2019s backroom team can only be a good thing.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYou\u2019ve got JD in there who I\u2019m sure will be helping the Scottish cause. He\u2019s seen what Sione\u2019s done on the big stage over the last couple of years and what he\u2019s done at Glasgow.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m sure Sione won\u2019t have been forgotten about ahead of selection time. JD\u2019s the only Scottish coach going so it\u2019s definitely important to have somebody in the room who knows the players really, really well and can give that level of feedback to the other coaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Warriors will pack a chartered flight full of just about anyone fit enough to travel for a double-header comprising an \u2018A\u2019\/under-23 match with Benetton ahead of Saturday evening\u2019s main event in the URC. Having the past week off has not greatly eased the injury situation, with none of those who missed the defeat to the Bulls nailed-on certainties to return this weekend.<\/p>\n

It looks increasingly likely that Gregor Brown<\/strong> has played his last game of the season, Jack Mann<\/strong> has played his last game for the club before moving to Gloucester and that Zander Fagerson<\/strong>\u2019s future involvement this season depends on how deep into the URC playoffs Glasgow go.<\/p>\n

On Tuipulotu and Jones, Murchie added: \u201cThey\u2019re close. Obviously with not having a game last week, we just need to see what happens in the next couple of days. But they\u2019re both close and have been involved in training a lot more. We want to see what today and tomorrow looks like before we make a final decision on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Zander: \u201cI think he\u2019s progressing well, but I think it would be touch and go [whether he plays again this season]. Obviously depending on how deep you go is the obvious big part of that as well. Hopefully we\u2019re talking that it\u2019s as deep as it can be and then obviously your chances go up. So it dictates whether we\u2019ve got six, seven weeks left or five weeks left. So that\u2019s going to play a part. But it\u2019s not going to cause any concerns around his Lions selection. He\u2019ll be good for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Jack Dempsey<\/strong>: \u201cJack\u2019s progressing but he\u2019s not going to [play] this week and I very much doubt next week as well, but he has ramped up his rehab. That\u2019s getting close to being able to make a firm call on what that\u2019s going to look like in terms of his participation past that. But it\u2019s good that he\u2019s ramping it up pretty significantly from what he has been in the last couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Josh McKay: \u201c<\/strong>He\u2019s not going to be right for this week, but it\u2019s a minor situation with him. His ankle is absolutely fine, it\u2019s just a little bit of a complication with prior surgery that\u2019s been done on that. But he\u2019s well on the road to recovery now and hopefully he\u2019ll be available for next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

One player who has been training with Warriors is Jack Oliver<\/strong>. And Murchie hoped a deal for the Scottish-qualified former Ireland under-20 scrum-half could be concluded soon.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cHe\u2019s been training with us for a number of weeks now. Obviously, he\u2019s an option for us moving forwards. There\u2019s history there in terms of his Scottish roots. Munster have allowed him to come to us for a period of time now and he\u2019s just been embedded in our squad and he\u2019s done well. Hopefully there\u2019ll be something done there where he can stay around longer term.\u201d<\/p>\n

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