'Glasgow's best chance is forcing Bulls not to play well'

Glasgow will have to knock the Bulls off their game if Franco Smith's men are to triumph in Saturday's URC final, says former Scotland star Chris Paterson.

Warriors have lost eight successive games in South Africa, including a narrow defeat by Bulls six weeks ago, since last winning there in 2018.

Having lost to Stormers in 2022, Bulls are in their second final in three years as an URC side while Glasgow last made it this far in 2019.

Speaking on the BBC Scotland Rugby Podcast, Paterson said: "I'd say Bulls are favourites. We had to do predictors about four or five weeks ago, as pundits, and I picked Bulls to win because if they play well at home, they determine who wins the game.

"Glasgow's best chance is forcing Bulls not to play well. But if the Bulls turn up with their physicality, with their game-plan, with their intensity, I don't think, as we saw last week with Leinster, you don't come away with much.

"So Glasgow need to force Bulls to play poorly and then strike."

Paterson insists there is much more in the Bulls' weaponry than just physicality.

"They are hugely physical, but they have added to the game over the last 12, 18 months," he said.

"I think Jake White [head coach] quite likes people to assume they're just a one-trick pony, massive, big physical side. But they're not, I think they're fourth for line breaks or second for offloads.

"They don't hold a lot of possession because they either score really quickly or turn it over because they have quite an attacking mentality and the last game [40-34 defeat] shows that they're so dangerous.

"But at the same time, they do have a lot of kind of unforced errors because they're trying to play a bit too quickly at times. That's where Glasgow can come alive and the blueprint for that was last week's win over Munster.

"Defend so bravely, so well, multi phase and hold your discipline after the first 10 minutes. And then you score, Glasgow's first try came from the defence, wasn't it? A forced error."