Glasgow Warriors go on the trail of their fourth straight RaboDirect PRO12 win and a further pre-Heineken Cup lift when they travel to face Aironi on Saturday (ko 2.30pm local time, 1.30pm UK time).
Sean Lineen’s men went through October with a 100% record, beating Cardiff Blues away before home successes over Dragons and Ospreys.
They head to the Stadio Luigi Zaffanella looking for a repeat of the victory they recorded there back in April, when tries from Ryan Grant and Peter Murchie saw the Warriors edge a close affair 17-16.
That was Glasgow’s only league success on the road last season, and with Aironi’s Italian counterparts Benetton Treviso having won at Firhill six weeks ago, head coach Sean knows it will take another “massive performance” for his troops to continue their fine recent run.
He told www.glasgowwarriors.org: “It’s another huge game for us this weekend, and in terms of intensity, appetite and execution, we’re going to need to be exactly where we were against Ospreys to get a further win.
“We were pretty fortunate to come away with four points the last time we played Aironi on their home patch, and this time round we’re expecting another stern examination. The focus all week has been on making sure we meet that challenge head on and give our fans another big result ahead of the Bath game next weekend.”
In order to give as many players as possible an opportunity to stake a claim for selection in the Heineken Cup opener, Sean has shuffled his pack this week, with only four members of the starting line-up from the Ospreys game also due to run out in Lombardy.
Captain Alastair Kellock has recovered from the calf complaint that saw him forced to withdraw from the Ospreys match on the day of the game and so starts alongside Richie Gray in the second row.
Come Saturday, Al will be in line to claim the record for the most individual minutes in the RaboDirect PRO12. Currently on 8536 minutes, the lock trails former Dragons winger Gareth Wyatt by 51 minutes with Cardiff’s Deiniol Jones (8533) in hot pursuit.
Elsewhere in the Glasgow team, Grant, who missed last Friday’s win with a sore knee, returns in an all-new front row where Dougie Hall and Ed Kalman also feature.
It’s all change in the back row, too, as James Eddie, John Barclay and Beattie replace Robert Harley, Chris Fusaro and Ryan Wilson.
Behind the scrum, Chris Cusiter again teams up with Duncan Weir, who has kicked 47 points in his last two outings. Ruaridh Jackson is still to recover fully from the hamstring injury he suffered against England at the Rugby World Cup.
In the centres, Alex Dunbar makes his first start of the season outside summer signing Troy Nathan, Federico Aramburu comes in for Colin Shaw and Peter Murchie enjoys his first outing of the campaign at full-back, having recovered from a shoulder complaint.
Sean said: “We’d always planned to employ a degree of rotation between the Ospreys and Aironi games, both to keep the side fresh and hungry and to see who really put their hand up as we enter a busy and vital period in our season.
“Guys like Rob Harley, Tom Ryder and Chris Fusaro will benefit from not being involved this weekend, and it’s great to be able to replace them with real quality. It’s also fantastic to have Al, Ryan and Peter back from injury, and to see Alex getting a well-earned first start this term.”
Glasgow Warriors

15 Peter Murchie
14 Federico Aramburu
13 Alex Dunbar
12 Troy Nathan
11 Tommy Seymour
10 Duncan Weir
9 Chris Cusiter
1 Ryan Grant
2 Dougie Hall
3 Ed Kalman
4 Richie Gray
5 Alastair Kellock (Captain)
6 James Eddie
7 John Barclay
8 Johnnie Beattie
Substitutes
16 Finlay Gillies
17 Gordon Reid
18 Michael Cusack
19 Rob Verbakel
20 Ryan Wilson
21 Henry Pyrgos
22 Graeme Morrison
23 Stuart Hogg
Not considered for selection due to injury: Calum Forrester (knee), Ruaridh Jackson (hamstring), Moray Low (calf), Fergus Thomson (shoulder), DTH van der Merwe (shoulder), Jon Welsh (ankle)

This article was posted on 3-Nov-2011, 13:48 by Hugh Barrow.