{"id":948832,"date":"2026-05-09T18:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948832\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T18:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:28:13","slug":"johnny-matthews-opens-up-on-france-move-glasgow-hopes-and-scotstoun-send-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948832\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Matthews opens up on France move, Glasgow hopes and Scotstoun send-off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthews\u2019 try-scoring exploits over the past seven years have catapulted him up to third in the club\u2019s all-time list, with a real chance to overhaul DTH van der Merwe<\/strong> before the end of the season. At that point, however, his time at Scotstoun will come to an end. At almost 33 years old, the appeal to sign a three-year contract to finish his career in the warmth of the south of France with newly-relegated US Montauban was understandable.<\/p>\n

The Liverpudlian still had a year remaining on his Glasgow deal but spoke nicely to head coach Franco Smith<\/strong> and managing director Kenny Brown<\/strong> who agreed to release the veteran to allow him and his family to take up the opportunity. For that he remains eternally grateful.<\/p>\n

Matthews said: \u201cFirst of all, I\u2019ve loved my time in Glasgow. And I have to thank them for allowing me to take this opportunity. I think it was just the length of the contract [that sealed the deal]. Three years gives me a great opportunity to go to France and try and prove myself. I think if you can make a name for yourself over there, then it\u2019s similar to here, I think. You\u2019ll be held in high esteem So, that\u2019s my objective and something I\u2019ve always wanted to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI had another year to go here so it was just a conversation with Franco, myself, and Kenny. I think similar to maybe players in the past who\u2019ve got a big opportunity abroad, you\u2019re trying to look after your family moving forward. And I can\u2019t thank the club enough for allowing those conversations and allowing them to progress. The climate is definitely going to be something [to look forward to]. But we\u2019ve played some big European teams over there, and the passion that the fans show for their team is the closest I\u2019ve ever come to playing in a football game. That\u2019s something I\u2019ve always wanted to feel and have behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be a few familiar faces waiting for Matthews when he gets there, while team-mates Adam Hastings<\/strong> (Montpellier) and Huw Jones<\/strong> (Toulon) won\u2019t be too far away either.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThere\u2019s Lewis Bean<\/strong> and Lucio Sordoni<\/strong> and then there\u2019s a couple of lads there who\u2019ve helped me out a little bit. Murray McCallum<\/strong> was there for I think four days, so he gave me his limited knowledge of the place. So yeah, Lewis and Lucio have been brilliant in trying to connect the dots for me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a few of us [moving over at the same time] so we\u2019re all having a laugh and trying to exchange words and trying to speak to each other a little bit in French \u2013 and it\u2019s maybe not going too well. I don\u2019t know how the French will take my Scouse accent but it can\u2019t be worse than up here anyway! But again, it\u2019s a great opportunity, and I think everyone who\u2019s leaving is grateful for the opportunities the club has given them and given them that platform to get the chance to go and play abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n

First of all, however, there is more pressing business to attend to. Friday\u2019s win over Cardiff combined with Ulster and Stormers drawing has sent Glasgow back to the top of the URC table ahead of their final match of the season in Belfast on Friday. Win with a bonus point in that point and it\u2019s home advantage all the way through the playoffs \u2013 even if Scotstoun will be unavailable beyond the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got four games to go here, and that\u2019s where my focus is, trying to finish the season as a double URC champion. And I think if you speak to any of the leavers as well, that\u2019ll be their aim as well. With Stormers drawing it\u2019s put it back in our hands. We know we go over there, we do a job, we get five points and we\u2019re top of the charts. And we can go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

And what about that reception as he was replaced? Unsurprisingly it is something that will stay with Matthews for a while to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was probably something I\u2019ll look back on, and I could see it, I feel it a little bit. That\u2019s a moment I\u2019ll cherish, particularly when I can look back at it and watch it again. The reception from the Scotstoun crowd is always something I\u2019ve cherished.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthews\u2019 try-scoring exploits over the past seven years have catapulted him up to third in the club\u2019s all-time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,85185,918,8979,4884,46088,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-948832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-divi","10":"tag-glasgow","11":"tag-glasgow-warriors","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-johnny-matthews","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116546037848763133","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}