Hampden switch carries risk for Glasgow Warriors but can also be worth it as predicted attendance soars

Rory Sutherland concedes that Glasgow Warriors are giving up home advantage by moving their derby match with Edinburgh to Hampden but the Scotland prop believes the temporary flit is worth it.

Around 24,000 tickets have been sold so far for Sunday’s 1872 Cup first leg and the hope is that the final attendance figure will be close to 28,000. That was the size of the crowd when rugby was last played at Hampden, in 2004, as Scotland lost 31-17 to Australia in an autumn international.

Glasgow are breaking new ground by playing the match at the national football stadium but there is also some risk involved given their outstanding record at their regular Scotstoun base. They have not lost a home match in the United Rugby Championship regular season since October 2021 when Leinster won 31-15, a defeat that predates Franco Smith’s time as head coach. Sutherland hopes the larger support they will enjoy at Hampden will outweigh any disadvantages that accrue from the unfamiliar surroundings.

“I think it's something that we've talked about a lot this week, going to a different venue for us,” said the prop. “Obviously it's not our home turf, but it's a great way for us to get the fans involved and to be able to get more fans in the stadium.

“It's trying to make sure that that's not a factor for us and that we turn up and make it feel like home. We obviously get an opportunity to go there on Saturday for the captain's run and try and get a feel for the stadium, so I think that'll be important for us. We just have to look at it as another home game.”

Raised in Hawick and schooled in rugby from an early age, this will be Sutherland’s first experience of Hampden and a step into the unknown.

“Football's not my thing,” he said. “I think as a professional player you get the opportunity to play at a lot of really nice stadiums throughout your career and that'll be another one to tick off for me and probably for a lot of other boys as well.”

The other big factor for Sutherland this weekend is that the match pitches him against his former club. The loosehead spent seven seasons at Edinburgh before joining Worcester Warriors whose financial collapse in 2022 brought his time in the English Premiership to a premature end. Spells at Ulster and Oyonnax followed but he was happy to return to Scotland in the summer and this will be the first time he has gone up against his former club in Glasgow colours.

“I started my [professional] career at Edinburgh and then I left in 2021, almost four years ago now. It's a good club and one that I was a bit reluctant to leave at the time. But I think the timing was right in my career then where things were going well for me and I was getting opportunities coming up at other clubs. So sometimes you have to take yourself out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself in other places and I think it was the right time to do that.

“And, look, obviously some of the things that have happened over the past couple of years have not been ideal with what happened at Worcester and being forced to move to other clubs. But I've been there and had really good experiences and, again, taking myself further out of my comfort zone going to two different countries, going to Ireland and then going to France. And, like I say, my hand was forced there to sort of have to do that.

“But I'm really happy to be back in Scotland and playing for a Scottish club again and being back around familiar faces and understanding what's wanted from me as a player at the club. So I'm really happy to be back playing rugby in Scotland.”

At 32, Sutherland is one of the more senior players in the Glasgow squad and, having played in the British & Irish Lions Test team in 2021, he has enviable big-match experience which has taught him not to allow the sense of occasion effect his performance.

“It’s been a long time since I've played in a derby match,” he said. “I think I was injured in my last year at Edinburgh, so it would have been almost five years now since I've actually played in a derby. I think it is important not only because Edinburgh's my old club but I think when you go into derby matches it'd be very easy to get into the emotional side of it and forget about the job at hand.

“And I think that's really important for not only me but for everyone else. It's just another game of rugby. It's points for us in the URC, so it is an important game but it's just another game of rugby and that's the way that we have to look at it this week.

“I think we're sitting second at the minute, I think we're in a great position and I think something we talked about at the beginning of the season was obviously when you win the URC there's a lot of expectation around you as a group. Again, it's about trying to... We're not trying to live up to any expectation or live up to what people are expecting of us and just trying to focus on ourselves and take it week by week.

“I think we've done brilliantly in both competitions. We've come off the back of two really good games in the European Cup, so yeah, in a great place at the minute.”