THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON
GLASGOW coach Sean Lineen is struggling to know what his team will look like in tonight's Magners League derby as Edinburgh head west intent on burying the memory of their European Cup exit and reviving a league title campaign.

Lineen yesterday named a 22-man squad which includes recent injured internationals Euan Murray and Sam Pinder, but admitted he was keeping his fingers crossed for an improvement in the health of several players today.

Murray, Scotland's new tight-head prop, is still not 100 per cent and so remains one of several injury concerns, while Thom Evans, Andy Wilson, Scott Barrow, Colin Gregor and Graeme Beveridge - who is due to make his 150th Glasgow appearance - have been suffering with flu.

"We've had to name a squad [rather than a XV] as we have a number of injuries, some of which are touch and go," said the coach. "If one player is out, it affects two or three different positions and we want to get it right.

"We don't want to put Euan [Murray] back in unless he is physically and mentally right. He has just played 17 games in a row, which is a world record for Euan, so we don't want to push him too hard. We want him to be right not just for us, but for Scotland as well.

"After a great win in Narbonne, it has been a frustrating week. We got back late on Sunday night; on Monday didn't do anything; Tuesday had a few guys missing with injury; Wednesday did a little bit, but not much; today had a team run and we play tomorrow. But it's a one-off game and we just have to go out there and remember all the good things we've been doing and why we've done them.

"I would hate to see us let ourselves down after everything that has happened. The players know each other so well, they know how they play, and there is so much up for grabs in terms of national positions, but I know how important it is for this team to perform over the next few weeks.

"In the past, this time of the year have not been good for Glasgow, so I have been emphasising very strongly how important these next two months are before the Six Nations gets going."

He added: "Edinburgh are favourites as they've been the flagship team in Scotland for a number of years, but we're going for our sixth home win in a row and we have confidence off the back of that win in France.

"The last time Edinburgh played in Glasgow, we came away with an impressive victory [46-6] - they sent out a weakened team and paid the price for it. So, hopefully, the crowd will be in good Christmas spirit and full voice to cheer us onto another significant result."

As Lineen noted, that big win was at a time when Edinburgh supplied most of the Scotland team and Glasgow had precious few involved, so the visitors were virtually a second-string outfit.

The last occasion the two met was at Murrayfield in September when Edinburgh shaded a dour encounter 14-9.

For Lynn Howells, the Edinburgh coach, that was an eye-opening introduction to the traditional stalemate of clashes involving Scottish sides who know each other's every move. His challenge is to help his side rise above that in order to put behind them a poor run of only one win, over the Borders, in the last five matches.

He insisted the heavy Hughenden pitch did not affect his team selection - Simon Webster could have played, but is not 100 per cent fit yet - but indulged in the familiar ploy of turning the spotlight on the opposition's eagerness, or lack thereof, for playing entertaining rugby.

He said: "We like to play rugby. We would have preferred a firmer surface, but when you play in this competition you have to adjust to what's in front of you.

"It surprised me to read earlier this week that the Glasgow coaches are looking to win ugly and to contest the contact area. I hope the referee is strong enough to get on top of that, because if he doesn't free it up the game will become a dog-fight."

Perhaps the experienced campaigner is getting his excuses in first, but the game will have at its helm David Changleng, Scotland's top-ranked referee. Howells hands a debut to Geoff Cross, the Borders prop signed this month as cover for Craig Smith, while Chris Bentley, the English lock, makes his first start, which gives Matt Mustchin a rare breather on the bench. Young talents Ross Rennie and Dave Callam return to the back row and Simon Taylor drops to the bench.

Glasgow have only the Borders below them in the Magners League, but know that a win tonight, followed up with another next week in the Borders, could up a 19-point lead over their fellow-Scots, albeit with one game extra played, and virtually assure them of a return to the Heineken Cup next season.

But anything other than a win for Edinburgh, who sit fourth in the table, seven points off leaders Ulster, begins to make their championship aspirations appear as meaningful as the Heineken Cup quarter-final hopes lost last weekend.

Howells added: "Last weekend has gone; it's finished. We have to move forward. It was very disappointing at the time, but if you dwell on things like that you might explode. Glasgow are the next Magners League game and that's what we're looking at.

" Having come off the back of two [Heineken Cup] losses, we need a positive result to solidify our fourth place in the Magners League going into the Christmas break."

Glasgow squad: Backs: S Barrow, G Beveridge, T Evans, C Gregor, A Henderson, R Lamont, S Marsden, H O'Hare, D Parks, S Pinder. Forwards: J Barclay, J Eddie, A Kellock (capt), S Lawson, E Murray, A Newman, J Petrie, S Swindall, F Thomson, K Tkachuk, D Turner, J Va'a.

Referee: D Changleng (SRU).

This article was posted on 22-Dec-2006, 08:56 by Hugh Barrow.