THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON
GLASGOW have been forced to switch their next Celtic League match to Old Anniesland after a clash with Partick Thistle over the Firhill home they now share with the football club.

The team are in Dublin today for the resumption of the Heineken Cup pool matches, where they face a star-studded Leinster side led by Brian O'Driscoll. But, further highlighting the difference in rugby in the two nations, while they trot out in front of over 11,000 fans in the Royal Dublin Showground today, they will play in front of a fraction of that when they face Neath-Swansea Ospreys in the Celtic League on Friday, 27 January.


The move, to avoid a mess of a pitch for Partick Thistle's match with Forfar Athletic on Saturday, 28 January, means Glasgow will host the Ospreys at Glasgow Hawks' home ground at Anniesland on the Friday night (7.30pm). All Glasgow's other home games this season will be played at Firhill.

Minds today, however, turn to how Glasgow can stifle a Leinster back division boasting six British and Irish Lions - O'Driscoll, Girvan Dempsey, Gordon D'Arcy, Denis Hickie and Shane Horgan -and Argentinian maestro Felipe Contepomi, currently the Heineken Cup's top points-scorer.

Hugh Campbell, the Glasgow coach, has made three changes to the side which suffered a narrow two-point loss away to Ulster last weekend. Young forward John Beattie has a respiratory infection, so skipper Jon Petrie returns to No8, John Barclay to open side flanker and Gregor Hayter to the bench. In the second row, Dan Turner starts and Tim Barker takes his place on the bench.

Campbell said: "Leinster are sitting third in the Celtic League, have been performing exceptionally well in the Heineken Cup and are still very much in contention for a quarter-final place, so this will be a challenging game, but one we're eagerly anticipating.

"Playing against a full-strength Leinster team in Dublin is an exciting prospect and we want to use it to build on the improvements that we've made in recent weeks."

Leinster (v Glasgow at RDS, 5.15pm): G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll (capt), G D'Arcy, D Hickie; F Contepomi, G Easterby; R Corrigan, B Blaney, E Byrne, B Williams, M O'Kelly, C Jowitt, J Heaslip, K Gleeson. Subs: D Blaney, R McCormack, A Byrnes, E Miller, B O'Riordan, K Lewis, R Kearney.

Glasgow: G Staniforth; H O'Hare, G Morrison, A Henderson, R Lamont; D Parks, G Beveridge; K Tkachuk, S Lawson, E Murray, D Turner, C Hamilton, S Swindall, J Petrie (capt), J Barclay. Subs: F Thomson, L Harrison, G Hayter, T Barker, S Pinder, C Gregor, M Roberts.

Referee: J Jutge (France).

This article was posted on 14-Jan-2006, 09:21 by Hugh Barrow.