Glasgowarriors.com reports

Max Evans set for comback

Max Evans could be back in Hawks' colours this weekend
Glasgow's Max Evans is expected to make his comeback this weekend after five months out with a knee injury.
Max looks set to turn out for Glasgow Hawks in their Prenier One match with Watsonians at Myreside.


THE TELEGRAPH REPORTS
No more excuses, coach Sean Lineen tells Glasgow Warriors
Sean Lineen doesn’t exactly crave attention, but neither does he like being overlooked. So it wasn’t exactly his idea of fun to find the European rugby media all but ignoring his presence at the Heineken Cup launch at the Madejski Stadium in Reading last week.

By Alasdair Reid
Published: 9:16PM BST 07 Oct 2009


Yet even he had to acknowledge that their indifference provided a fair reflection of the pitiful track record of Scottish sides in the tournament.
“When you go and do television interviews, the Welsh get an hour in a big room and the Scots get a little throwaway five minutes in the car park,” Lineen explained. “But fair enough, we have to change that. It’s a fantastic tournament to be involved in and it’s up to us to make sure we play a major part in it.”

Related Articles
Sport on television
Magners League guide
Jackson out for three months
Magners League is 'playground of the stars'
SRU appoints first female development officer
Gregor faces the axe
Edinburgh emerged from their pool to reach the Heineken Cup’s knockout stages in season 2003-04, but no other Scottish side has got to the quarter-finals in 13 years of trying.
The closest Glasgow came to that Shangri-La was in the 1997-98 competition, when they went into a play-off against Leicester for a last-eight slot, but their interest in the tournament came to a brutally abrupt conclusion as the East Midlands side hammered them 90-19 at Welford Road.
“When I was at the Cup’s launch last week you could just feel the buzz and anticipation,” said Lineen. “It’s still a bit galling the way Scottish teams are viewed – rightly so, I suppose, because we’re hanging on a little bit there. It’s up to us to change that.”
Scottish professional rugby has unfolded as a series of false dawns, but there is now a more solid case than ever for saying that Edinburgh and Glasgow have no reason to harbour inferiority complexes as they prepare to pit themselves against Europe’s best sides.
Last season, Glasgow pulled off one of the greatest shocks in Heineken Cup history by beating Toulouse on the French side’s home turf, while Edinburgh did a double over Castres, winning in both Scotland and France.
Ahead of Glasgow’s match against Biarritz at Firhill on Saturday, their opening game of this year’s Heineken Cup, Lineen stressed that the respect that has been slow in coming from the rugby press is at least being offered by other teams in the competition.
Lineen said: “I think the attitude is changing with the results we’ve had over the last few years. That was the impression I got from the Biarritz website, in light of what happened last season in Toulouse. In Europe we’re certainly on the map, but the Toulouse game was a one-off at the end of the competition and it didn’t really matter as far as getting through was concerned.
“Maybe we have used excuses a bit too much in the past: not having the same budget, the same facilities, the same support, the same money. We can’t use those, otherwise we might as well just pack up and go home. This is about making a mark for Scottish rugby because the players are good enough.
“Guys are coming to the fore and if we can get fit players on the field then we have a real opportunity. I think there is a sea change in Scottish professional rugby. More is being asked of everyone – coaches as well as players. We just have to get on and do it, get out there and challenge each other as a group.”
Glasgow were given a massive boost last weekend when they beat last season’s Heineken Cup semi-finalists Cardiff Blues 21-5 in their Magners League clash at Cardiff City Stadium.
It was all the more remarkable that they did so with a team of players, many of whom had been suffering heavy doses of flu in the build-up to the match.
Unsurprisingly, for the Biarritz game Lineen has chosen the same starting XV he originally selected for last weekend’s game. International scrum-half Chris Cusiter had dropped out of that line-up after the team had travelled to Wales, but although he has been restored to the No9 shirt, with Colin Gregor returning to the bench, there are still suspicions around the Glasgow squad that Cusiter may not yet have fully shaken off the effects of the virus.
Lineen conceded that some of his squad were still suffering as the flu bug has taken longer to clear up than expected. Yet while Gregor’s performance in Cardiff was hugely reassuring, the coach would still prefer to hear that Cusiter had been given a clean bill of health by Gerry Haggerty, the club doctor.
“Colin did a lot of good things against Cardiff,” said Lineen. “After the first 10 minutes I thought he controlled the game really well. He’ll play a part in Europe, he always does, but in Chris we’ve got a guy who is a British Lion and who knows a lot about French rugby. There are certain parts of his game that will suit playing against Biarritz.”
Lineen also expressed the hope that international centre Max Evans’s long-awaited comeback from the knee injury that has kept him out of action for the past five months may finally take place this weekend. Evans is expected to make his return with Glasgow Hawks in their Scottish Hydro Premiership match against Watsonians at Myreside.

This article was originally posted on 7-Oct-2009, 21:44 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 7-Oct-2009, 21:56.