Glasgow’s focus in their crunch clash with Connacht in Galway is to win, secure the Guinness PRO12 regular season “title” for the second year in succession and then see how the cards fall for the play-offs, says head coach Gregor Townsend.
True to form the coach has retained only Alex Dunbar and Leone Nakarawa from the team that put 70 points on Zebre last week, turning instead to much of the team that won 46-10 away to Scarlets three weeks ago.
The only injury alterations are Henry Pyrgos’ absence with a neck injury – he should be ready for the next game, wherever it is – and the return of Peter Horne after three weeks out with concussion issues.
The various permutations of the final weekend could see the Warriors end up back for a Scotstoun semi-final on May 20 against Ulster or Scarlets, heading to the RDS in Dublin to face Leinster or even back at the Sportsground for a second clash with Connacht, but Townsend isn’t even thinking about possibilities.
“The key is just to get there and see,” he said. “It seems it is only Ulster or Scarlets who can finish fourth now and they are both very good teams, in fact whoever we play in the semi is going to be a very good team.
“You have a slight advantage, especially in terms of history, in getting the home semi-final and that is what we are working to do.”
Finishing top of the standings would be a huge morale boost especially considering Glasgow were eighth as recently as mid-February.
“It’s great because other results have created a situation where we can now finish top by our own efforts,” he said.
“We were expecting Leinster and Connacht to win last week but now we win and we get a home semi-final. The bonus of finishing top would great after the efforts the players have put in.”
Glasgow have not lost at the Sportsground since 2011, and won every meeting of the clubs since then, but Townsend knows this is a different kind of team in green.
“Connacht move the ball more than any other team in the competition but we’ll see if they do that tomorrow because rain is forecast,” he said. “There may be more kicking involved but we’re up against a good team who are very strong on their home ground.”
Selection was one of the toughest of the season, added the coach.
“We’d hoped to have Henry (Pyrgos) because he was fantastic against Scarlets but he wasn’t right after training on Tuesday,” he said.
“Peter has missed the last couple of games but we know what a strong combination he and Alex (Dunbar) are. There’s a couple of things tactically we want to do with Peter there, and he’s played really well for us this season.”
Horne and Dunbar might be a slightly more solid defensive combination against Connacht’s big centre pairing of Bundee Aki and Robbie Henshaw, while Townsend has also gone with the big back row of Rob Harley, Ryan Wilson and Josh Strauss.
“There’s no out and out open-side but that was the back row that played in the PRO12 final last year and they were excellent against Scarlets,” added Townsend. “We went into that game planning to nullify James Davies and John Barclay and they did that very well.”
Lee Jones’ try double means he retains his place ahead of Sean Lamont and Taqele Naiyaravoro. The veteran is on the bench but the Fijian-born Wallaby, who leaves the club in the summer after a brief one-season stay, is omitted from the 23.
Glasgow (vs Connacht, Guinness PRO 12, Galway Sportsground today, ko 3pm, live on BBC 1 Scotland) Stuart Hogg; Tommy Seymour, Alex Dunbar, Peter Horne, Lee Jones; Finn Russell, Ali Price; Gordon Reid, Fraser Brown, Sila Puafisi; Leone Nakarawa, Jonny Gray (capt); Rob Harley, Ryan Wilson,Josh Strauss.
Replacements: Pat MacArthur, Jerry Yanuyanutawa, Zander Fagerson, Tim Swinson, Simone Favaro, Grayson Hart, Mark Bennett, Sean Lamont.