Dave Rennie has welcomed back an entire legion of international names as Glasgow look to build towards a positive end to the season with a tricky visit to Parc Y Scarlets.
Although unlike Edinburgh, Glasgow are already safely into the playoffs, victory tomorrow will guarantee the Warriors top spot in Conference A and a home semi-final which could be key given the likely calibre of opponent they will face.
The house party returns at half back and Ali Price and Finn Russell will welcome a chance to regain some of the momentum that misfiring Six Nations performances stole away from their reputations.
With Ruaridh Jackson and Lee Jones in Hong Kong (winning 22-19 over England in their pool match earlier) and bound for the Gold Coast, Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour make up the back three with former Scarlets man DTH Van Der Merwe who may not find this one as easy as the match against Zebre where he picked up a brace.
Speaking of former team-mates, John Barclay will line up against his old club for the last time (in regular competition at least) before his move “home” next season. He’ll face down captain Ryan Wilson alongside Callum Gibbins and Rob Harley; a doughty trio.
Jamie Bhatti continues to hold down the loosehead slot, which could be one reason that Ryan Grant announced his retirement this week, while Zander “Zandbags”™ Fagerson starts at tighthead.
With the Scarlets arguably better at playing like Glasgow than Glasgow are at the minute, it could be a ding dong battle but even with the Welsh region still flying high in Europe they’ve put out their top side. There are plenty of parallels with the Wales Scotland game from Feburary, not least personnel, and Glasgow will need to be at their best to get anything out of this one. They are, of course, perfectly capable of doing so but if there is one worry it is that neither George Horne (also with the Sevens) or Niko Matawalu (?) is present to offer a game-changing option from the bench.
With Europe a distant memory for Glasgow, it is easy to forget the seeming ease with which the squad depth has helped Glasgow over the line during the PRO14 while the big guns were on Autumn and Six Nations duty for Scotland.
With everyone back together, now is the time for the belligerent, confident and rapier-sharp team we all know lurks within this Glasgow squad to present themselves.
Scarlets: 15 Leigh Halfpenny, 14 Ioan Nicholas, 13 Scott Williams, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Steff Evans, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Gareth Davies, 1 Rob Evans, 2 Ken Owens (capt), 3 Samson Lee, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 5 Steve Cummins, 6 Aaron Shingler, 7 James Davies, 8 John Barclay.
Replacements: Ryan Elias, Dylan Evans, Werner Kruger, Lewis Rawlins, Will Boyde, Aled Davies, Dan Jones, Steff Hughes
Glasgow: 15. Stuart Hogg, 14. Tommy Seymour, 13. Nick Grigg, 12. Sam Johnson, 11. DTH van der Merwe, 10. Finn Russell, 9. Ali Price; 1. Jamie Bhatti, 2. George Turner, 3. Zander Fagerson, 4. Tim Swinson, 5. Jonny Gray, 6. Rob Harley, 7. Callum Gibbins, 8. Ryan Wilson (capt)
Replacements: 16. Grant Stewart, 17. Oli Kebble, 18. Siua Halanukonuka, 19. Scott Cummings, 20. Chris Fusaro, 21. Henry Pyrgos, 22. Peter Horne, 23. Lelia Masaga.
Players unavailable: Adam Ashe (ankle), Fraser Brown (ankle), Ryan Grant (back), Paddy Kelly (ankle), Pat MacArthur, Leo Sarto (shoulder), Brandon Thomson (knee), Richie Vernon (ankle) and Lewis Wynne (hip).
Kick off 4.15pm coverage on Sky Sports