Retaining youth key for Glasgow after Jon Welsh and Ruaridh Jackson sign up

Jon Welsh, the loosehead prop, has been winning rave reviews this season to the extent that his agent had offers from England and France for a strong loosehead prop with an obvious future in the game. That made the SRU's hopes of keeping him on the relatively low salary he signed up with extremely unlikely, but after a few weeks of negotiation the Glasgow lad has agreed a new three-year deal to stay in his home city.

It follows confirmation that Ruaridh Jackson, the 21-year-old stand-off, has also put pen to paper this week on a two-year deal that ensures he will continue to push for a Scotland place from inside Scotland until after the 2011 World Cup.

Sean Lineen, the Glasgow coach, said he was delighted with the news and felt it was a crucial show of faith both by the SRU and Glasgow in two good talents, but also by the players in the work being done at Glasgow. He said: "Ruaridh has a very strong work ethic and is developing nicely here at Glasgow. He's been with us for a couple of years now and is a wonderful talent. I'm a big fan of Ruaridh's and have been impressed with everything about him.

"It's been really satisfying also to coach a young guy like Jon and that's all down to his attitude in training and on the field. He's a breath of fresh air and I'm looking forward to seeing him realise his undoubted potential."

Jackson has dropped back to the bench for tomorrow's game after starting against Newport Gwent Dragons last week, but he believes Glasgow can offer him the best chance to fulfil his early promise and become a firm part of the international game in the next two years. He also stated that the new training facilities at Scotstoun Stadium, part of an 18million revamp of the west end facility for the Commonwealth games, had played a part in persuading him to stay.

"I've learned a lot since I've been with Glasgow and I think it's the ideal place for me at the moment," he said. "I've been working hard with Sean Lineen and the coaches whilst also being in constant contact with the national coaches on what I need to improve on.

"I'm really excited about the new training facilities we're moving to in the summer – I think that'll be a big positive. The club's definitely going in the right direction, everything is going well."

Welsh has shown a maturity beyond his years in stepping into the first team at Glasgow this season and holding down a regular spot, and he has earned his shot with the Scotland 'A' team in November and now a training role with the full set-up.

He recognises that he still has much work to do to become a more complete prop, and has been persuaded that the route to that is with Glasgow. Nonetheless, a few years spent as an electrician probably made offers from elsewhere, understood to be up to treble his existing salary, attractive.

"It was always my ambition to stay here in Glasgow," he said, "I'm now looking to continue the way I'm going and give it my all in a Glasgow jersey.

"Glasgow is my home town, and every time I run out onto the Firhill pitch, it's fantastic. I now just want to focus on playing my rugby with Glasgow Warriors."

Welsh starts again tomorrow in a Glasgow front row that welcomes back Dougie Hall and Moray Low, while Alastair Kellock, John Barclay, Graeme Morrison, Chris Cusiter and Parks also return, which means Kelly Brown reverts to blindside flanker and Rob Dewey to the right wing, with DTH van der Merwe ruled out due to a calf injury.

However, the back five of the pack and the lineout will be where a lot of interest is focused tomorrow. This was where Biarritz ripped Glasgow apart at Firhill at the start of the season and virtually buried the Warriors' plans of reaching the Heineken Cup quarter-finals before they got started.