‘Excited to see him play’ - Kyle Rowe’s Glasgow Warriors debut is eagerly anticipated

“We’re all very excited to see him play,” said Franco Smith, the Glasgow head coach. “I’m pleased for him because he’s had to overcome quite a lot of injury issues. He’s had a good pre-season with us and he deserves a chance to play this week. It’ll be good to see him play and see how he adapts. It’ll be good to see the freedom and the way he expresses himself.”

Rowe, 25, trained with the Scotland squad before the World Cup and then played in the Warriors’ pre-season games against Zebre Parma and Ulster, scoring two tries in the 33-29 win against the Italians. He comes into the side to play Connacht at the expense of Sebastian Cancelliere, one of four changes made by Smith to the team which made an impressive start to the URC season by beating an admittedly youthful Leinster 43-25 last weekend. George Horne starts at scrum-half in place of Jamie Dobie after marking his 100th appearance for the Warriors by coming off the bench and scoring a try against Leinster. Sione Vailanu, fresh from playing for Tonga at the World Cup, slots into the back row for Rory Darge, and Richie Gray also makes his first appearance since the World Cup, taking over from Greg Peterson in the second row. Dobie, Darge and Peterson are among the replacements.

At 34, Gray is the senior statesman in the team and Smith believes he is fully refreshed after playing for Scotland in France.

“Richie gets better the more he plays and with the way we manage his training,” said the coach who expects a tough encounter against opponents who reached the URC semi-finals last season. “He’s had a good break. He’s an old head and we know how to manage him. It was planned a long time ago in terms of how we brought him back.”