AFTER the disappointment of Glasgow Warriors' performance in Munster last week, Gregor Townsend, the head coach, has resisted any temptation to gamble with tonight's home clash against Benetton Treviso, wheeling out most of his big guns in a bid to cement the result.
The good news for him and Vern Cotter, the Scotland head coach, is that he is able to welcome both Tommy Seymour and Peter Horne back into the squad after injuries – Seymour makes the starting side and Horne is on the bench – though the big interest among supporters is likely to be just as much about seeing the two new signings who will probably make their debuts.
Both Langilangi Haupeakui and Brian Alainu’uese are named on the bench and Townsend made it clear he intends to give both a run at some stage in the game, having been impressed with what he has seen in training so far.
To play just six days after arriving in the country from New Zealand is asking a lot of Alainu’uese, but Townsend has few doubts. "Brian is 22 but looks like he has been playing the game at the highest level for the last 10 years," he said.
"He fitted in so well on Monday. We were working on our attack shape and he picked it up very quickly. His match fitness is really good, he has played the last eight weeks for Waikato in the Mitre Cup.
"He is obviously impressive physically, 135kg [21st 4lb] but moves well. We looked around a lot for second row cover but he stood out. He had an option to go to France but thankfully we got in at the right time and Dave [Rennie, who will take over as Glasgow coach next season] helped us. We are pretty excited about getting a player of that quality."
Haupeakui has been here longer and did travel to Ireland with the squad last weekend in case of late injuries but was not needed. "He is desperate to play," said Townsend. "His main strengths are defensive, he is an excellent tackler, really good timing of the hit.
"He has an American Football background, he's only been playing rugby for two years. He played both sides of the ball in American football, offence and defence, and is a good runner – explosive. His timing is really good, he reminds me of a rugby league player the way he runs those under-lines. What he needs to work on are the intricacies of lineout, maul, things he probably hasn't picked up."
With those two ready to add to the mix in the second half, the big thing for Townsend is that he wants to see the team reacting to the way they under performed against Munster. True circumstances were set against them, but they still came away feeling they had not done themselves justice.
"We obviously got things wrong," said Townsend. That starts with me in terms of our preparation and how we got the players into the frame of mind to focus on playing that game. We didn't get it right.
“So its been a chastening but important learning experience. If we ever get into a similar situation, I would do things differently and we would be ready for it."
To get there he has picked as strong a back division as he has available, with most of the tinkering up front. Last week's starting front row are all given a rest with the bench players all promoted to the run-on XV and Simone Favaro, the former Treviso flanker, gets his first start since hurting his shoulder in the second game of the season.
Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg; T Seymour, M Bennett, A Dunbar, R Hughes; F Russell, H Pyrgos (C); A Allan, P MacArthur, S Puafisi, T Swinson, J Gray (C), J Strauss, S Favaro, R Wilson. Replacements: C Flynn, D Sears-Duru, D Rae, B Alainu’uese, L Haupeakui, A Price, P Horne, L Jones.
Benetton Treviso: J Hayward; D Odiete, T Iannone, A Sgarbi, A Pratichetti; I McKinley, T Tebaldi; N Quaglio, L Bigi, S Ferrari, F Gerosa, M Fuser, D Budd, A Zanni (C), A Steyn. Replacements: D Giazzon, F Zani, T Pasquali, F Minto, M Barbini, E Gori, T Allan, A Esposito.
Referee: D Wilkinson (Ireland)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here