URC: Glasgow v Munster: Jack Demspey facing lengthy lay-off
03/20/2025 06:00 PM
JACK DEMPSEY is facing four to six weeks at least on the sidelines with the hamstring injury which ruled him out of Scotland’s final Six Nations match against France in Paris last Saturday.
“Jack had a recurrence of an old injury that he’s been operated on before,” said Glasgow Warriors head coach Franco Smith after naming his team to face Munster in the URC at Scotstoun tomorrow [Friday] night. “We’ve sent him down to see the specialist again. He’s come back with a prognosis. We think it will be a four to six week injury at the moment. It also depends on what route we follow. We hope that it’s four to six weeks at this moment.”
The loss of the dynamic back-rower is a blow to Warriors as they enter the business end of the season, but that has been off-set to some degree by the return to action this weekend of Sione Vailanu – another powerful carrier – after 15 months recovering from a knee injury.
Peato Mauvaka handed three match ban following Ben White head collision
Long read: Hawick must adapt now or accept a bleak future
Ben Vellacott recommits to Edinburgh with unfinished business to take care of
"It’s incredible that he’s worked hard and kept his weight down. The S&C and the medical team has done a great job in preparing him now to slowly but surely find his feet back into our side,” said Smith, who has picked two international back-rows in Matt Fagerson and Gregor Brown on his bench to face Munster, stating that he does not expect Vailanu to play the whole game.
"He’s doing well. He worked really hard. We all knew that he was going to do his utmost to be ready in time for the season to play some good rugby again. He’s been progressing well. He’s been running out on the field and slowly but surely creeping closer to a return date. He’s looking really good. Everything’s on track at the moment.
"He was basically rugby-ready for us two weeks ago and he’s been integrated through the rugby programme. Now we see this part of his game as introducing him to the high performance level."
Meanwhile, Huw Jones is listed as having head and ankle injuries but Smith suggested that he doesn’t expect the centre to be out much longer than fellow Scotland stars – such as Zander Fagerson, Rory Darge and Tom Jordan – who have been rested this weekend as part of Scottish Rugby ‘International Player Protocol’.
“Some of the boys are off through the player management programme and we obviously gave him a bit of time away as he’s one of them,” said Smith of Jones. “But he had to come back in to do his return to play from the HIA perspective. Then he’s got some ongoing niggles that we keep on managing and trying to resolve.
"Obviously when you go into the national environment, the ‘pre-hab’ stuff is done differently. It’s now just getting him back on track with his ‘pre-hab’ injury prevention programme to make sure that we get some of the niggles ironed out as soon as possible.”
Smith dismissed a question about his team needing to get back on the horse following their last-gasp home defeat to Ospreys last time out by insisting that his team had not actually lost that game as far as he is concerned.
"The first thing is to forget about what’s happened. If you keep on playing the point that you missed as a tennis player, or you keep on thinking about the shot in the basketball play that you missed, or a goal that’s not been shot, you’re not going to progress.
"We won that game in my mind. A human error is always possible and that probably led to the wrong result. The reason I’m saying we’ve won that, from our group’s perspective, is the fact that we clawed our way back into that game, like I said that night.
"We came back from 15-0 down. Yes, with a younger group and a different group, we maybe weren’t as precise as we usually are. So, we’ve taken, like I said that night, just the positives from that.
"It was beyond the restart that we got it wrong. If we see that as a loss, we’ll be wrong. There was some good stuff to get us back in contention.
"We’ve used that. We’ve talked about the disappointment. We learned from that. But we have now obviously moved on, and we are focused on what has to happen next.
"Winning all your home games doesn’t guarantee the URC final or the European Cup final position. It helps, but you still have to go and play that game wherever it needs to be played to win it.
"I don’t want a home performance’s record to be an anchor that pulls us down. It should be an elastic that catapults us ahead. I’d rather use that in our favour than it being something that keeps holding us back."
Smith also reassured Warriors fans that his squad will continue on a positive journey next year despite market forces requiring a contraction in the number of players in the senior squad, with Tom Jordan and Henco Venter already confirmed leavers, while Jack Mann is also believed to have signed for Gloucester although that has not been confirmed yet.
"For now, we’ve got the squad reasonably decided for next year. It will be smaller due to the fact that the players’ value went up with all of the good stuff that was happening. Some people accepted the offers that we could give them and some got better offers.
“That’s basically what the situation is. For now, I think the squad will be good enough to continue growing and developing. It’s also going to be an opportunity to bring some of our young academy boys through, like we’ve been doing, to grow the bigger pool for Scotland.
"Here’s where we lose some up-and-coming stars. They will not be lost to Scottish rugby, even if they’re not playing in Scotland.
"It’s also the right time to see some of the young talent come through beyond the 20-level and the 21-level. I think that also creates a new opportunity. It does allow us to develop the next generation, but it will also be very important for the senior guys to be on par and keep on working hard in progression."
Smith was more circumspect on his own future, amid speculation that he could leave Scotstoun before his contract runs out next summer to take up roles with Leicester Tigers, Wales or indeed Scottish Rugby.
"At the moment, it’s status quo,” he said. “We want to win this next game tomorrow night. That’s the main objective for me there. It’s a big, big importance for me. There’s 12 possible games left in this season. That’s the focus for now.
"If we’re going to get distracted with other things, we might fall short. But for now, like I said, I’m here at the Warriors. We’re going to climb in and make the best of every minute that I’m here."
URC: Glasgow v Munster: Warriors boosted by the return of Sione Vailanu and Kyle Steyn
The post URC: Glasgow v Munster: Jack Demspey facing lengthy lay-off appeared first on Scottish Rugby News from The Offside Line.
