Tuipulotu targeting Friday night lights

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MARCH 18: Sione Tuipulotu during a Glasgow Warriors training session at Scotstoun Stadium, on March 18, 2024, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

With a home quarter-final already secured, the Warriors know that victory – plus other results going their way – is paramount to their hopes of finishing as high up the BKT United Rugby Championship standings as possible and thus increasing their chances of home advantage deeper in the playoffs.

Friday night lights 💫

There are currently fewer than 50 single seats available for our BKT URC Round 18 clash against Zebre!

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“We know we didn’t perform to our best over in South Africa, and I know all of the boys are super motivated to go out this weekend and put in a performance that’s more like what we expect of ourselves,” the centre told glasgowwarriors.org.

“There are five crucial match points that we want to go out and earn to put ourselves in the best possible position in the final standings.

“We don’t know our fate yet, but we’re just concentrating on finishing the regular season strongly on Friday night.”

Despite earning a convincing win away in Parma just a month ago, Tuipulotu and his team-mates are under no illusions as to the challenge posed by the visitors on Friday night, with Zebre amongst the top teams in the league for bonus-points gained across the competition to date.

“It’s the last round of the season, and we know every team in the competition will get up for the final match of their campaign,” he said.

“Zebre will come out firing and look to finish on a high, and we know that they gave Edinburgh a lot of trouble recently over at the Hive.

“We know that we just need to play our game, go out and do our jobs well and give ourselves momentum going into the playoffs.”

The centre also lifted the lid on preparations at Scotstoun since returning from the Rainbow Nation, with Franco Smith and the coaching team overseeing a squad driven by a desire to give the Warrior Nation reason to roar under the Friday night lights.

“It’s been an intense 10 days or so since we got back,” said Tuipulotu.

“All the boys are disappointed with how we finished the South Africa trip, but they’re all lessons we’ll take into the playoffs.

“Everyone’s competing hard and putting their hands up to be selected, because we know we want to go out and finish the regular season on a high on Friday night.”

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— Glasgow Warriors (@GlasgowWarriors) May 28, 2024