Ospreys v Glasgow: Teams

Lineen: Looking for consistency

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Glasgow coach Sean Lineen has opted to keep faith in the same line-up that beat Connacht 34-20 for the trip to the Ospreys.

Hooker Fergus Thomson does return to the squad to take his place on bench after recovering from a series of injuries.

And having seen the club struggle with injuries and illness so far this season, Lineen insists the troubles have united the players.

"The squad's got even tighter because of what's been happening off the field with illness and injuries," he said.

"The last few weeks we've been able to get more bodies into training which has made a big difference.

"Consistency isn't two games. Consistency is five or six games, but even just to have the same team for another game allows us to become a little bit more familiar.

"The guys are now getting the chance to work with each other a bit more like Chris Cusiter and Dan Parks - the key combinations that you need to work well. It's all about familiarity.

"Having that stability is good but there's no doubt that this game against the Ospreys is a huge challenge. It's an altogether different challenge to Connacht.

"It's the only Welsh province that we haven't won away against and we'd like to change that."

Debuts

The Ospreys are set to hand debuts to Liam Davies, Ross Davies, James King and Nicky Thomas after seeing international call-ups rob them of a number of key players.

Liam Davies will start the match, while Ross Davies, King and Thomas are named among the replacements in a much-changed line-up.

Ryan Bevington will also make his first start, while Ian Gough will captain the Ospreys for the first time.

Director of coaching Scott Johnson said: "It's been an interesting week for us, preparing for an important Magners League game minus so many players, with 10 players in the Wales squad and a growing injury list.

"But, what circumstances like this do, is allow someone else the chance to shine. You certainly won't hear us complaining about the situation, we understand that one of our remits is to develop players for Wales, and also, to develop Ospreys players.

"We've got a considerable record in developing players that we are extremely proud of, and we are always aware that this leads us to situations like now when we have to cope without our international players, which is why we've made changes to our development system to enable us to cope better this year, and this is now the first real test of the system."

Ospreys: 15 Barry Davies, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Sonny Parker, 12 Andrew Bishop, 11 Nikki Walker, 10 Gareth Owen, 9 Liam Davies, 1 Ryan Bevington, 2 Richard Hibbard, 3 Cai Griffiths, 4 Ian Gough (Capt), 5 Filo Tiatia, 6 Jerry Collins, 7 Marty Holah, 8 Tom Smith.
Replacements: 16 Ed Shervington, 17 Ross Davies, 18 James King, 19 Steve Tandy, 20 Rhodri Wells, 21 Jonathan Spratt, 22 Nicky Thomas

Glasgow: 15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 Colin Shaw, 13 Max Evans, 12 Graeme Morrison, 11 Thom Evans, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 John Barclay, 6 Kelly Brown, 5 Al Kellock (c), 4 Richie Gray, 3 Moray Low, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Jon Welsh.
Replacements: 16 Fergus Thomson, 17 Kevin Tkachuk, 18 Dan Turner, 19 Richie Vernon, 20 Mark McMillan, 21 Colin Gregor, 22 Hefin O'Hare.