Glasgow Warriors head coach Gregor Townsend insists it is vital his side bounce back from their two Heineken Cup defeats with victory in Saturday’s RaboDirect PRO12 clash with Treviso.

Townsend’s men went into the Heineken Cup break on the back of four straight RaboDirect PRO12 wins, the latest an 18-3 victory at Cardiff Arms Park on October 6.

But their form did not translate into the European competition with the Warriors going down 24-15 at Northampton Saints and 19-8 at home to Ulster.

The Warriors show five changes with blind-side flanker Rob Harley making his first start since returning from injury and open-side John Barclay coming in for Chris Fusaro.

Tommy Seymour returns from suspension to replace the injured Byron McGuigan while Niko Matawalu lines up on the other wing with Finlay Gillies at hooker.

Glasgow summer singing Taylor Paris is on the bench as the 20-year-old Canadian looks to make his debut.

Peter Murchie reverts to full-back with Stuart Hogg at outside centre, and Alex Dunbar switches to inside centre after starting on the wing against Ulster.

And Townsend is under no illusions as to the tough task his side face at Stadio Monigo with Treviso on a run of back-to-back RaboDirect PRO12 wins over Edinburgh and the Scarlets.

“This weekend’s game against Benetton Treviso is massive for us,” said Townsend.

“We’ve achieved some good results of late in the RaboDirect Pro12 and, after two defeats in the Heineken Cup, it’s vital we get back on track.

“We’re well aware that it’s going to be an extremely tough game.

“Treviso have already beaten Ospreys and Scarlets at home and only lost to Leinster by a point there.

“That underlines just how well we’re going to have to play in all aspects of our game to come away with another win.

“As usual with matches against Italian opposition, we’ll need to be watertight in our work up front.

“Our scrum has been going really well in recent games, and establishing the right sort of platform in the set-piece is a necessity.”

Treviso are aiming to make it two wins out of two against Scottish opposition having taken a surprise 27-22 victory at Murrayfield earlier this month.

But Glasgow have a formidable record in Italy, winning on five of their last six visits, and Treviso lost both their encounters against Scottish sides at Stadio Monigo last season.

Manoa Vosawai starts at No.8 with the front row made up of Ignacio Fernandez-Rouyet, Franco Sbaraglini and Pedro Di Santo.

Francesco Minto lines up in the second row alongside skipper Corniel van Zyl while Christian Loamanu is among the backs.

Australian Brendan Williams also returns to action with a place on the bench.

Treviso also suffered back-to-back defeats in the Heineken Cup, with Toulouse beating them 33-21 last week, and head coach Franco Smith is hoping his side have learned their lessons ahead of their return to RaboDirect PRO12 action.

“I hope that after the game against Toulouse we have gained a bit more experience. After watching it back there is still a lot to learn,” said Smith.

“It was a good test to see where we are. I think we are on the right path.

“This week we couldn’t really prepare as we would have liked with the national team preparing for the autumn internationals.

“We hope that the guys will return invigorated. We need to concentrate on the execution for the next game.

“We will have to bear in mind that it’s going to rain a lot but that will be the same for both teams.

“It’s a home game in Monigo and we want to turn it into a fortress. We’ve lost once at home already which we didn’t want to do but we have to make it as hard to win here as possible.”

At Stadio Monigo, 7.05pm local time (6.05pm UK & Ireland).
Referee: Leo Colgan (IRFU, 8th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Alan Falzone, Stefano Traversi (both FIR)
Citing Commissioner: Achille Reali (FIR)
TMO: Carlo Damasco (FIR)

Live on Sportitalia and BBC ALBA