On Friday night, the Hollywoodbets Sharks kick off their 2025/26 Vodacom United Rugby Championship campaign against the Glasgow Warriors, a proud team with a long history and one of two Scottish teams in the VURC.
Based in Glasgow, which was founded in the sixth century, it is the most populous city in Scotland. There are over 600 000 citizens calling it home, marginally less than Pietermaritzburg and a little more than Benoni.
The name Glasgow is said to derive from the Gaelic ‘Glas Caomh’ meaning dear green place and the sermon preached by St Mungo, a Christian missionary said to have founded the city in the sixth century “Let Glasgow Flourish” has been adopted as the city’s motto in modern times.
The green in the dear green place may well stem from the fact that Glasgow’s average of more than 170 days of rain a year make it the rainiest city in the UK.
Aside from soccer, Scotland has a proud rugby union history and Glasgow is equally proud of their team, the Warriors.
Founded in 1872 – 153 years ago – Glasgow Warriors play their rugby out of the 7351 capacity Scotstoun Stadium, with South African Franco Smith currently their head coach and the mastermind behind much of their success, particularly at home at ‘Fortress Scotstoun’.
Smith was appointed in the 2022 season and made an immediate impact that year, coaching the Warriors to an unbeaten record at home where they finished fourth on the VURC log, losing to Munster in the quarter-final. They went further in the European Challenge Cup, all the way to the final before falling short to Toulon.
Smith was named VURC coach of the year for 2022/23 and continues to be a force in the tournament.
Both Glasgow and Edinburgh were formed in 1872, and the pair share the unique distinction of having played the world’s first ever inter-district match on 23 November that year.
With a smaller player base than many countries, Scotland have always punched above their weight, with the Warriors winning the Pro 12 title (previously the Celtic League) in 2015, becoming the first Scottish team to win a major trophy in rugby union’s professional era.
During the 2023-24 Vodacom United Rugby Championship season, they became the first Scottish side to win the tournament after they defeated the Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria.
It was their fourth final appearance in the various formats of the competition, but their first title after claiming a 21-16 victory in front of a then-record crowd attendance of over 50 000 supporters.
In the last tournament (2024/25), they finished fourth on the log, defeating the DHL Stormers 36-18 in the Glasgow quarter-final, before going down to eventual winners Leinster in the semi-final.
