HENDERSON AND PARKS RETURN AGAINST LLANELLI

Two Scotland caps, Andrew Henderson and Dan Parks, are back in Glasgow’s XV for the Celtic League match against Llanelli Scarlets at Stradey Park tomorrow.

In all, seven changes have been made from the team who started in the 19-14 win against Cardiff. Four of those alterations, however, are positional. Overall, Glasgow have only two changes in the match 22, with the return of Andrew Wilson and Colin Shaw. Wilson play at open side, as he would have done in the match against Cardiff at Hughenden two weeks ago if he had not been unwell, whereas Shaw is restored among the replacements.

Wilson’s return is the only personnel change in the pack. To accommodate him on the flank, Jon Petrie, Glasgow’s captain, switches to No.8 in place in of Paul Dearlove.

Parks resumes at stand-off, with the consequential knock-on effect of three positional switches. Calvin Howarth moves to full back, Rory Lamont to the right wing, and Andy Craig to his international role at outside centre. Henderson’s return and Craig’s switch mean that Scott Barrow and the injured Graeme Morrison drop out. Barrow, however, is on the bench, as is Dearlove.

This will be the fourth time this season that Glasgow and Llanelli have met. The West Wales club won the home and away Heineken Cup games whereas Glasgow took a four-try bonus point from a 40-29 win in the Celtic League match at Hughenden.

Tomorrow’s match will be Glasgow’s last away league match of the season. After it, a week tomorrow, they finish their league programme with a Hughenden game against Leinster. But good results in those two matches would extend Glasgow’s season into the Celtic Cup.

In the current league table Glasgow are eighth, the last qualifying position for the cup quarter-finals. However, it is an extremely tight contest. Edinburgh and Ulster, like Glasgow, are on 39 points, and any one of those three could leap up into fourth place for a home quarter-final in the cup competition.

“We know we need to finish in the top eight in the league table. We’ve already beaten Llanelli in the league,” Hugh Campbell, Glasgow’s head coach, commented today. “But they won the two Heineken Cup matches, and they’ll be aiming for a home game in the cup. It should be a good contest.”

Tomorrow’s match will kick off at 5.30pm. Glasgow’s team:

15 Calvin Howarth
14 Rory Lamont
13 Andy Craig
12 Andrew Henderson
11 Sean Lamont
10 Dan Parks
9 Sam Pinder

1 Kevin Tkachuk
2 Scott Lawson
3 Euan Murray
4 Joe Beardshaw
5 Dan Turner
6 Steve Swindall
8 Jon Petrie (captain)
7 Andrew Wilson

Substitutes:
16 Gordon Bulloch
17 Ben Prescott
18 Andrew Hall
19 Paul Dearlove
20 Graeme Beveridge
21 Scott Barrow
22 Colin Shaw

This article was originally posted on 8-Apr-2005, 12:27 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 8-Apr-2005, 12:35.