Preview: Glasgow v Gloucester

Glasgow Coach Sean Lineen has challenged his players to play like league leaders when they host Gloucester in the Heineken Cup.

Glasgow Head Coach Sean Lineen has challenged his players to play like league leaders when they take on Gloucester in Europe on Friday.

The Warriors moved top of the Magners League last Friday when they beat Ulster 25-13, but their Heineken Cup form is extremely different.

“It's a tale of two tables,” said Lineen.

“In the Magners League we're at the top but in the Heineken Cup we're at the bottom.

“We need to play like a team that's at the top of the Magners League to do our current position justice.”

Glasgow, who lost their two opening Pool 2 games to Dragons and Biarritz, have made three changes to the team that won in Northern Ireland.

Scotland joint-captain Chris Cusiter returns to the number nine jersey and Peter Murchie takes over on the wing from youngster Alex Dunbar, while Dan Turner replaces Tim Barker in the pack.

As a result of the changes, Thom Evans moves to the right wing and Richie Gray moves to the left hand side of the scrum.

Lineen is now looking for his team to atone for their narrow home defeat by Biarritz, during which Glasgow let slip a nine-point lead.

“We're still disappointed with what happened with the Biarritz game so we need to make sure we're back on form at Firhill to show the supporters what we've got as a professional sports team,” he said.

“Last weekend, I was particularly impressed with the way in which the players performed in such a hostile environment, especially our younger forwards like Jon Welsh, Richie Gray and Richie Vernon.”

Meanwhile, blindside flanker Peter Buxton returns to the Gloucester line-up this Friday and will also wear the captain's armband.

Buxton takes over the captaincy from Gareth Delve who, having started twelve of the Cherry and Whites' fifteen competitive games this season to date, drops down to the bench with Luke Narraway starting at number eight.

In fact, the back-row is the only area of the pack where Head Coach Bryan Redpath makes changes from the XV that started against Newcastle.

There is one change in the back-line where Carlos Spencer starts at full-back in place of Olly Morgan with Tom Voyce returning on the bench.

And Redpath is aware of the size of the task that lies in wait at Firhill against the Warriors.

“We're aware of what Glasgow are, they've got a good spine in their side,” he said.

“They are not top of the Magners League by default. They've had some good results in Europe over the last two seasons.

“I know what it's like as a Scotsman playing against an English side. They will be hugely switched on with a chance to scalp us.

“I'm not going up to Scotland to be judged that we haven't played to win. It means a lot to me going up there. I'm not going up there to lie down.”

The teams:

Glasgow: 15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 Thom Evans, 13 Max Evans, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Peter Murchie, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 Richie Vernon, 7 John Barclay (capt), 6 Kelly Brown, 5 Dan Turner, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Moray Low, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Jon Welsh.
Replacements: 16 Fergus Thomson, 17 Ed Kalman, 18 Kevin Tkachuk, 19 Tim Barker, 20 Calum Forrester, 21 Mark McMillan, 22 Colin Gregor, 23 DTH van der Merwe.

Gloucester: 15 Carlos Spencer, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 James Simpson-Daniel, 12 Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu, 11 Lesley Vainikolo, 10 Nicky Robinson, 9 Rory Lawson, 8 Luke Narraway, 7 Alasdair Strokosch, 6 Peter Buxton (capt), 5 Alex Brown, 4 Dave Attwood, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Nick Wood.
Replacements: 16 Darren Dawidiuk, 17 Paul Doran-Jones, 18 Alasdair Dickinson, 19 Adam Eustace, 20 Gareth Delve, 21 Dave Lewis, 22 Tom Voyce, 23 Tim Molenaar.

Date: Friday, December 11
Venue: Firhill, Glasgow
Kick-off: 19.30 GMT
Referee: Christophe Berdos (France)
Assistant referees: Eric Gauzins (France),Jean-Luc Rebollal (France)
Assessor: Bertie Smith (Ireland)