Steyn & Fagerson 'in mix' for Glasgow's Champions Cup opener

David Currie - BBC Sport Scotland Senior ReporterWed, October 14, 2026 at 10:16 AM UTC

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Club captain Kyle Steyn and Zander Fagerson are "in the mix" to feature for Glasgow Warriors for the first time this season in their opening Champions Cup match against Sale Sharks on Saturday. Assistant coach Scott Forrest confirmed the Scotland internationals are back in full training and are in contention for places. Forrest described their potential return as a massive boost for Warriors. Steyn, the club captain, hasn't played since Scotland's summer tour, during which he picked up a foot injury that required surgery. Tighthead prop Fagerson injured a knee on international duty but has fully recovered. Zander's younger brother Matt should be fit too, according to Forrest, despite the back-row forward leaving the field in the URC win over Connacht last weekend with a groin issue. Forrest said: "It's probably not as bad as first thought. He has had something similar in the past, so again it was precautionary. He's not trained much at the start of the week, but he's moving about absolutely fine. "Whether he plays this week or not, we'll wait and see. As important as this game is, there are other important games coming up for us and for Scotland, so we'll wait and see." Kyle Rowe, who missed out on the match against Connacht through illness, also returns, with Forrest saying: "We are in a good place going into the weekend." Warriors won all of their Champions Cup pool matches last season, including their opener away to Sale, a memorable 26-21 win. They beat the Bulls in the last 16 but were knocked out of the competition at the quarter-final stage by French side Toulon, who beat Franco Smith's side 22-19 on their home patch. No Scottish club has ever reached the last four of the competition, let alone won it, and Forrest isn't ready to list Warriors among the contenders to be named European champions. He said: "We feel like every game we go into, if we get our stuff right, then we can go and beat anyone, as we've shown in the past. So that's not changed. "Do we view ourselves as contenders? Like I said there, I think we have a belief that, on our day, we can beat anyone because I think you saw that last year. "So we'll keep believing we can go and beat anyone on our day, but in terms of talking about winning competitions, we're not there yet."

Club captain Kyle Steyn and Zander Fagerson are "in the mix" to feature for Glasgow Warriors for the first time this season in their opening Champions Cup match against Sale Sharks on Saturday.

Assistant coach Scott Forrest confirmed the Scotland internationals are back in full training and are in contention for places.

Forrest described their potential return as a massive boost for Warriors.

Steyn, the club captain, hasn't played since Scotland's summer tour, during which he picked up a foot injury that required surgery.

Tighthead prop Fagerson injured a knee on international duty but has fully recovered.

Zander's younger brother Matt should be fit too, according to Forrest, despite the back-row forward leaving the field in the URC win over Connacht last weekend with a groin issue.

Forrest said: "It's probably not as bad as first thought. He has had something similar in the past, so again it was precautionary. He's not trained much at the start of the week, but he's moving about absolutely fine.

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"Whether he plays this week or not, we'll wait and see. As important as this game is, there are other important games coming up for us and for Scotland, so we'll wait and see."

Kyle Rowe, who missed out on the match against Connacht through illness, also returns, with Forrest saying: "We are in a good place going into the weekend."

Warriors won all of their Champions Cup pool matches last season, including their opener away to Sale, a memorable 26-21 win.

They beat the Bulls in the last 16 but were knocked out of the competition at the quarter-final stage by French side Toulon, who beat Franco Smith's side 22-19 on their home patch.

No Scottish club has ever reached the last four of the competition, let alone won it, and Forrest isn't ready to list Warriors among the contenders to be named European champions.

He said: "We feel like every game we go into, if we get our stuff right, then we can go and beat anyone, as we've shown in the past. So that's not changed.

"Do we view ourselves as contenders? Like I said there, I think we have a belief that, on our day, we can beat anyone because I think you saw that last year.

"So we'll keep believing we can go and beat anyone on our day, but in terms of talking about winning competitions, we're not there yet."

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