URC: Glasgow contenders again and will Edinburgh get it together?

Following the departures of Tom Jordan, Sebastian Cancelliere and Henco Venter in the summer of 2025, many of us questioned Warriors’ ability to challenge.

Those fears were dispelled in extraordinary fashion as Glasgow romped through their Champions Cup pool with maximum points and finished top of the regular season URC standings.

It could be argued, however, that a lack of squad depth caught up with them just when it mattered most.

The injury to George Horne, for example, left them without a scrum-half of similar quality and experience to fill the void.

There was a sense of a golden opportunity missed as Glasgow passed up home routes to the final of both competitions, so is there a danger of carrying those scars into the new season?

Glasgow and Scotland lock Gregor Brown admitted: “It’s kind of the cruel part of sport. I don’t think boys are probably fully over it.

“I think that will actually only really come after the first couple of games when you can right a few wrongs in a Glasgow jersey.

“We didn’t come up with the goods at the end of the season. But if you go in all negative, thinking about what happened at the end, then it’s not going to do anybody good.”

With key figures such as Huw Jones, Adam Hastings, Jack Dempsey and Johnny Matthews all exiting Scotstoun in the summer, head coach Franco Smith is once again tasked with reshaping his squad.

Former Edinburgh captain Jamie Ritchie will add some much needed nous to the pack, but injury means he will not be seen in a Warriors jersey until November.

Smith will be relying on young talent coming through and hitting the ground running to keep his side competing at the top end.

However, former Scotland captain Andy Nicol told the BBC Scotland Rugby Podcast: “I think they’re just such a well-oiled machine at all levels that it doesn’t matter who leaves.

“They seem to have got a pipeline coming through, which is how you should run a professional entity. And, you know, the contrast is very stark to what’s happening at the other end of the M8.

“I think Adam Hastings will be more of a loss, bizarrely, than Huw Jones, just because Jones didn’t play as much and you have Stafford McDowell and some of the young kids coming through Glasgow are quite excited about.

“Dan Lancaster – who’s the back up to him? I think that’s probably why I think Adam going to Montpellier might be a bigger loss to Glasgow. We’ll see how that plays out, because it’s such a pivotal position, isn’t it?

“But I’m pretty confident that Glasgow will be right in the mix and let’s hope they can go one, two steps further than they did last year.”