It comes as a bit of a surprise that Franco Smith and Ryan Wilson seem to get on so well given the pair could hardly have more disparate personalities.
Wilson is a 50-times capped former Scotland back-rower who spent 13 years on the books of Glasgow Warriors, several of them as co-captain.
The only thing the English-born forward loved doing more than playing rugby, however, was winding up the opposition, most notably Munster with whom he developed something of an ongoing rivalry.
That capacity for fun and nonsense continues to serve him well in his role as a pundit with Premier Sports where he combines astute rugby knowledge with endless mischief-making, quite often at Edinburgh’s expense.
Smith could scarcely be more different in that regard. One of his first acts after becoming Glasgow head coach in 2022 was to take the co-captaincy from Fraser Brown and Wilson and hand it instead to Kyle Steyn, another South African with whom he shares a like-minded philosophy. Steyn is still Smith’s trusted on-field lieutenant to this day.
Those who know Smith well say he is a much more fun-loving figure away from the pitch but his public-facing image is of someone who has little time for impulsive or reckless behaviour, the sort of emotive act that can distract a team from its objectives.
Handre Pollard of the Bulls confronts Glasgow skipper Kyle Steyn at Scotstoun back in April
When Adam Hastings picked up a yellow card earlier this season for ruffling the hair of Leinster fly-half Sam Prendergast, Smith was quick to condemn it. ‘It goes a little bit against the spirit of the game,’ he frowned. ‘It’s not what we coach here.’
In light of that, it comes as no surprise that Smith has tried to play down the growing rivalry between his side and the Vodacom Bulls ahead of Saturday’s latest meeting in the URC semi-final at Murrayfield.
Wilson, though, takes the opposite approach, his eyes lighting up and a grin crossing his face as he addresses the simmering spite between the two clubs that stretches back to 2024 when Glasgow went to the Bulls’ Loftus Versfeld home in Pretoria and defied the odds to emerge as URC champions.
The teams have met three times since, all at Scotstoun, winning one apiece in the league before Glasgow knocked out the Bulls in the last 16 of this year’s Champions Cup.
All have been close and physically demanding encounters and an air of familiarity will again settle over Murrayfield this weekend, that intensity heightened by how much is at stake. And Wilson believes burgeoning rivalries like this one can only be good for the game.
Steyn gets his hands on the URC trophy after a stunning final win for Glasgow in South Africa
‘I try to build it up because I think rivalries are good and this is what the game needs,’ he said. ‘And it’s almost like a new-age rivalry, isn’t it, with the Bulls? There’s always been that one against Munster. Although it wouldn’t really be much of a match if you played Munster at the moment!
‘But with the Bulls, it’s slightly different based on what Glasgow did when they went down to Pretoria and snatched that trophy pretty much out of their hands. And then let’s not forget the round of 16 when Glasgow knocked them out of Europe this season as well.
‘So, I personally think there’s a bit of bad blood there. I’ve chatted to Franco on and off camera and he says there’s no rivalry there. He says it’s just the media that builds this stuff up.
‘But there’s got to be something there. If I was a Bulls player, I would be saying, “let’s get one back over these boys, especially over in Scotland”. It would make it all the sweeter to go back and do it to the team that did it to you over there. So, I can’t see how there’s not a rivalry there.’
Wilson revealed he was never shy of using personal battles as a source of motivation but admitted his successor as captain is of a different mould.
Warriors coach Franco Smith is keen to play down talk of a rivalry between the semi-finalists
‘Kyle Steyn is a very different captain to what I was!’ he added. ‘I would always try to lean into that side of things because I think it would emotionally get me up. Personally, that was the part of the game I loved, building up these rivalries. And the fact that when you played Munster, things got overheated.
‘I think it’s good for the crowd and the stadium to get involved in that as well. But this squad’s slightly different in the fact that they know they probably don’t need to fire themselves up too much. They know that they’ve got the firepower there to go and do it if they’re just really clinical.
‘I personally think it’s good fun to build up the rivalry stuff. Rugby needs more of that. Everyone talks about how you make rugby bigger and how you grow the game and that’s one of them.’
Premier Sports is the home of every game live from the BKT United Rugby Championship including this Saturday’s semi-final as Glasgow Warriors host Vodacom Bulls. Live coverage starts at 1.45pm on Premier Sports 1 with Ross Harries, John Barclay, Ryan Wilson, Thinus Delport, Chris Paterson, Simon Zebo and Rory Hamilton. To join from just £11.99 a month go to www.premiersports.com
