IT has almost been like having a new signing for Glasgow Warriors and their fans now that Oli Kebble is finally 100 per cent fit and raring to go.

Last season a lot of the criticism aimed at the team revolved around its perceived lack of physicality. They got bullied too often, particularly in the key European games where their scrum and maul turned out to be fatal flaws. Worse still it could be that the solution was sitting in the stands, nursing one injury or another.

True, this season's European test is still 11 days off but the signs are that, when Kebble plays, the Glasgow scrum and maul go forward; when he doesn't, life can get a lot tricker, as happened in the Southern Kings match, which he missed after getting a bang on the head the week before.

Man of the match last weekend against the Dragons after scoring his first Glasgow try, he is feeling in great shape to see what the next few weeks can bring after enduring one of the most frustrating starts possible to his Glasgow career which meant that until the last few weeks they have hardly seen Kebble in full flow.

"I think I was unlucky coming off Super Rugby, getting injured in my second game, coming back, getting a run of form and then getting injured again before the semi-finals," said Kebble.

"I’m happy with the way things have gone so far [this season] I think it’s good to get a full pre-season under the belt with the team and just a lot more time to gel with the players. It’s been a lot easier this year.

"I was frustrated with myself being injured. Obviously our trade is being on the field so when you’re not on the field it’s a pretty frustrating time. From that perspective it was quite tough."

It was tough going for the 26 year old from Durban in South Africa. He arrived straight from the Southern Hemisphere season, got a total of 46 minutes of action in two runs from the bench and broke a toe.

That put him out until Christmas, he came back, and got his only two starts of the season while international players were away at the Six Nations. Just as he was starting to find a bit of form, he injured his ankle.

With a full Glasgow pre-season under his belt and the confidence that comes from shoving Welsh, Irish and South African packs around the pitch, Kebble believes Glasgow are in good shape to stand up to the physical challenge Saracens will pose.

"We’ve worked hard on it in pre-season, it’s a team effort, it’s a pack effort. We said at the start of pre-season we want to lay down a marker, we want to show that a Scottish pack can hold their ground and put a step forward in Europe," he said.

"All the boys have put some hard work in and it’s starting to show. It will be interesting to see what happens over the coming weeks but we’ve been working really hard on it.

"We’ve put more of a focus on wanting to dominate up front and we keep believing in that. We've put a lot of work in in pre-season. It's similar personnel to last year, but just empowering the pack a lot more. Our main focus is to dominate up front."

The game that gave them most confidence was the Munster match early last month. The Irish province may have come without a number of their first-choice players further back but all the big front-row guns were there and Glasgow still dominated.

"Every day we try and re-affirm what our core values are as a pack and it was good to show that against Munster," said Kebble. "Traditionally, Munster have had a really strong pack, so to show that here in front of our fans was really special. It doesn’t stop just doing it once, we’ve got to do it week-in, week-out to really build on that."

The only minor issue is that with Kebble playing so well and not qualifying for Scotland until next year, there is a distinct shortage of Scottish blood playing regularly on the loosehead side of the scum.

Not that it worries Kebble, who has learned not to take anything for granted after seeing how quickly last season collapsed into ruin. His focus is entirely on Zebre this week, and Saracens the week after.

"Any pack can [bully opponents] if they believe they can. In terms of personnel, we’ve got some really world class forwards and if we just put emphasis on dominating up front – working hard at it because it doesn’t come easy – I think like we’ve shown already we will dominate up front," he added.