Glasgow head coach Franco Smith urges rival Edinburgh fans to lend their support to his Warriors in URC semi-final at Murrayfield

Franco Smith last night called on Edinburgh fans to lend their backing to Glasgow’s URC title push after booking a semi-final date at Murrayfield.

Warriors were pushed all the way in last night’s quarter-final against Connacht before emerging victorious to set up a last-four tie against either the Bulls or Munster, who play at lunchtime.

Glasgow now have to vacate their Scotstoun home to allow the preparations to begin for the Commonwealth Games, meaning next Saturday’s semi-final will be played at Murrayfield instead.

Warriors now have just a week to try to shift as many tickets as they can for the 68,000-capacity national stadium and Smith hoped they could call upon Edinburgh fans and neutrals to lend their support.

The head coach said: ‘I think we’ve got far enough now to say we’re representing Scotland and not just Glasgow any more. I don’t expect Edinburgh fans to grab a Glasgow flag to swing around. But for them it will be a good entertaining opportunity and hopefully we can fill Murrayfield as that would be fantastic.

‘Most of the boys have played so many Tests at Murrayfield already. They know the surface and the atmosphere there. I hope we can get a lot of people in there for that game to make it special. It’s not often that a Scottish side can play a home semi-final there so hopefully we can make it a special night.’

Warriors would also return to Murrayfield should they progress to the final but Smith wasn’t keen to look too far ahead.

He added: ‘It would be fantastic, you know. Imagine playing the final in Murrayfield. It would be just unbelievable. But it’s a big “if”. Hopefully, that is the last word this week spoken about it.’

Smith praised his players for coming through a testing tie, singling out captain Kyle Steyn who scored twice and made a key try-saving tackle.

‘I’m really happy with the result,’ he added. ‘We’ve played a lot of playoff rugby before but there are still some lessons to be learned from this. That’s going to be important for next week.

‘I must mention Kyle. I don’t like to single out players but the tackle he made changed the game for us. You need your leader to step up and he didn’t give up there. We turned the ball over and didn’t give away a try. And he can be very proud of that.’