Kellock shows Warrior spirit to reach landmark

"I dodged a bullet there," said Kellock as he prepared to fly to Parma. "When I did it, I heard a click and thought 'this is going to be messy'. I have ruptured ligaments but, because it is ruptured, it is stable and I can just get on with it. There is a bit of pain, but it is not unbearable. I think my ankles have been damaged enough in the past that they are stable enough from other areas. To be honest, I don't really know the ins and outs of it, just that I feel okay, trained on Monday and am looking forward to playing."

Though he played his 200th game in all competitions late last season, this is still a significant match for him. He will be only the sixth player to reach 150 Celtic matches - 94 of them for Glasgow and the rest when he was starting out his career at Edinburgh - putting him still a couple behind Dan Parks, his former Glasgow and Scotland colleague, and 17 behind Michael Swift, the Connacht lock and captain.

However, his determination to shrug off discomfort to lead the team is exactly the attitude that has allowed him to reach such landmarks. After all, it is not as though Glasgow were desperate to have him back. They have kept winning and Jonny Gray, the 19-year-old brother of Richie, the Scotland lock, has been earning plaudits all round as well as the man-of-the-match award last week, when Warriors beat Leinster, the champions.

Kellock's return is one of nine changes in personnel from the side that beat Leinster, as Townsend, the head coach, keeps his troops fresh and, at the same time, hunts out some extra power to tackle the aggressive Italians head-on.

Kellock will form a new second- row partnership with Rob Harley, allowing James Eddie and Josh Strauss to complete a powerhouse back row, while in front of them Gordon Reid and Dougie Hall have been handed the job of countering the Zebre scrummaging strength.

Behind the scrum there are a couple more surprises. Stuart Hogg has a minor wrist injury, allowing Sean Maitland to make his first appearance since returning home from the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia. More unexpectedly, despite being singled out by Townsend for praise last week after his first start for a year, Chris Cusiter is the scrum-half to lose out as Henry Pyrgos starts and Niko Matawalu stands by to make his first appearance of the season after breaking a bone in a foot in pre-season training.

In a way, Zebre's win in Cardiff last week is probably a good thing for Glasgow, since it ensures there is no possibility of complacency when the league leaders travel to play the side second from bottom in the table and who did not win a match last season.

"Last year they had a real togetherness in their group and their away performances showed that," Townsend pointed out. "They lost to us by two points, they lost to Ospreys by a point when they were in a position to win, and they lost another couple of games away by only a couple of points. Then they beat Cardiff, who had started the season really well.

"They are a strong side and at home they will be full of confidence. We know we have to be at our best to win this game.

"Every week is a different focus,

a training camp with different opposition. We quickly get back to who we are playing against. There were a few areas we could have done better last week, though we were pleased with a number of aspects. That is what we focus on: look at that, see what we can improve, look ahead to the next opposition and what we can do at the weekend."

One area where Zebre would seem to have an advantage is in goalkicking. Glasgow missed six out of seven shots at goal last week while Luiano Orquera, the Italian flyhalf was

landing five from six from the kicking tee as well as a drop goal in their win in Wales.

"Three of ours were from a long way out, which makes them tricky," said Townsend. "The pleasing aspect is that we have a number of kickers in the squad. They are pushing each other along but it is something we have to do better."