Glasgow look to hit the ground running

Published on Wednesday 3 September 2008 23:36

GLASGOW head into a new Magners League campaign in Wales tomorrow night without the comfort their rivals Edinburgh have derived from pre-season victories.

But coach Sean Lineen insisted yesterday that defeats to Bristol and Gloucester have done nothing to shake the confidence of a team that finished the last campaign with five wins on the trot.

He said: "Everyone was saying after our wins in France 'fantastic, brilliant' when I was saying 'hang on, it's just pre-season'.

"It's one of these things where if you win pre-season games people say it's great for momentum, but if you don't do so well you point out that there's no table, no points and nothing relies on the results of pre-season.

"Both games served a purpose for us and had a lot of positives. I was comfortable with our defence and what we created against Bristol. At Gloucester we were winning 8-3 at half-time, made a few changes, went down to 14 men and again our defence was outstanding until we lost two late tries, but this is the business now and the guys need a competitive game where points are at stake – this is what they've been waiting for.

"We're excited about the way we finished last season, but it counts for nothing if we don't hit the ground running this week. We're not going to be world champions quite yet, but we are growing something here, as they are at Edinburgh, and it's important we continue to raise expectations and put us somewhere we haven't been. Why not? It's very easy to slip back to being the underdog.

"I'm realistic, when you look at the funds at the Ospreys, Cardiff, Leinster and Munster, and the Dragons have been adding a lot of players to their squad this year, which is exciting for them, but we know it gets harder every year. But we have a good squad and we know that when we're on form we can win games, and it's about the players being ambitious, having no passengers, and not standing still. If you stand still you're dead in this game."

Mark McMillan and Tim Barker make their first league starts for the club since returning to the city from Wasps and Castres respectively, and Johnnie Beattie returns at No8 to reform the Warriors' 'Killer Bs' back row with John Barclay and Kelly Brown.

Glasgow (v the Dragons at Rodney Parade, tomorrow, 7.05pm): B Stortoni; L Fa'atau, M Evans, G Morrison, T Evans; D Parks, M McMillan; J Va'a, D Hall, M Low, T Barker, A Kellock (capt), K Brown, J Beattie, J Barclay. Subs: E Milligan, K Tkachuk, O Palepoi, S Swindall, C Gregor, A Henderson, R Jackson.