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Glasgow team to face Saracens
Francisco Leonelli returns for Glasgow
Glasgow Warriors head into Europe with a trip south to take on Saracens in the European Challenge Cup on Sunday.
On a week of birthdays for the Warriors with Graeme Morrison, Fergus Thomson and Jon Petrie all marking an anniversary, the club hope to be celebrating further with a repeat of the score-line from the last time the two sides met – a thrilling 33-5 victory for the Glaswegians in season 2003-04 in the same competition.
The starting XV sees four changes (one positional) from the team who lost to the Ospreys in Wales last week. Francisco Leonelli returns from injury to start at fullback meaning Rory Lamont moves to the right wing and Hefin O\'Hare drops to the bench. In the centre, Andy Henderson replaces Scott Barrow and at stand-off, Dan Parks starts while last week\'s starting stand-off, Colin Gregor, is unavailable for selection due to a thigh injury sustained in the game against the Ospreys.
This means National Academy player Ruaridh Jackson joins the line-up on the bench, the first time the 18-year-old has featured in the senior squad since joining the Warriors during the summer. He said: \"I\'m pretty excited about it all. It\'s great to be selected in the 22 and if I get the opportunity to get onto the pitch then, I\'ll obviously be a bit nervous but I just can\'t wait to get down there. I\'ve been playing my club rugby with Cartha [Queen\'s Park] and I’ve really been enjoying it there. They\'re a good bunch of guys and I think my game has been going quite well. Although we may not have gotten off to the best start this season, we picked up our game and had a good performance last week against top of the table Stirling County.\"
The Glasgow Warriors team to play Saracens in the European Challenge Cup is as follows:
HAWKS RELATED PLAYERS@
15 Francisco Leonelli
14 Rory Lamont@
13 Graeme Morrison@
12 Andy Henderson@
11 Thom Evans
10 Dan Parks
9 Graeme Beveridge
1 Justin Va\'a
2 Fergus Thomson*@
3 Euan Murray*@
4 Andy Newman
5 Alastair Kellock CAPTAIN
6 Andrew Wilson*
7 John Barclay*
8 John Beattie*
Substitutes:
16 Scott Lawson*
17 Kevin Tkachuk
18 Dan Turner
19 Donnie Macfadyen
20 Sam Pinder
21 Ruaridh Jackson**
22 Hefin O\'Hare
Unavailable for selection due to injury: James Eddie (ankle), Colin Gregor (thigh), Sean Marsden (hamstring), Mike Roberts (knee), Colin Shaw (ankle).
The following National Academy players are being made available to play for their clubs this weekend:
Willie Brown**, Jamie Hunter** (both Hillhead-Jordanhill), Moray Low** (Aberdeen GSFP), Colin White** (Ayr), Allan Kelly** (Glasgow Hawks), Calum Forrester** (GHA) and Ben Addison** (Stirling County) in the following fixtures: Aberdeen GSFP v Boroughmuir, Heriot\'s v Ayr, Glasgow Hawks v Melrose, Hamilton v Hillhead-Jordanhill, Biggar v GHA, Jed Forest v Stirling County.
This article was posted on 20-Oct-2006, 12:44 by Hugh Barrow.
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