Henry Pyrgos, the scrum-half, seems to be in pole position to lead Glasgow into the new Guinness PRO12 season after being given the captaincy for Warriors' final warm-up game, against London Scottish at the Richmond Athletic Ground this afternoon.

With Al Kellock still recovering from the shoulder surgery that kept him off Scotland's summer tour, the 25-year-old Pyrgos would make a compelling case for himself to lead the side in the PRO12 opener against Leinster next weekend with a strong performance today.

Pyrgos is one of eight Scotland internationalists who return to the side after last weekend's narrow loss to Harlequins at Scotstoun. The others are Tommy Seymour, Alex Dunbar, Gordon Reid, Kevin Bryce, Tim Swinson, Chris Fusaro and Adam Ashe.

Ashe, the No.8, was capped by Scotland against South Africa last month, but today's match will be his first start for Glasgow. Hooker Bryce also made two Test appearances for Scotland on the summer tour despite never having started a competitive game for his club.

Of Pyrgos, head coach Gregor Townsend said: "Henry gets the opportunity to captain the side and after performing well for Scotland in the summer we're looking forward to seeing him back in a Warriors shirt."

Kellock, who was confirmed as club captain for the ninth season in a row earlier this week, is expected to be back in action around the beginning of October. Josh Strauss, who captained the side against Harlequins, will be on the bench today and is also in the frame to lead the side while Kellock is missing.

"This is a good opportunity for us to continue our pre-season preparations," said Townsend. "It also enables more players to get some game time and to transfer their hard work from the training field into a full blown rugby match.

"Although we were pleased with many aspects of our performance against Harlequins there were a number of areas to improve. It's given us plenty to work on in training this week and this is an opportunity for us to build on the positive aspects of last week's performance."