Gregor Townsend insists he is more than happy to have a selection headache as he welcomes back his Scottish contingent for the visit of Cardiff Blues this Friday night. The Warriors have the RaboDirect PRO12 summit in their sights as they take on Blues at Scotstoun, having recorded six league wins in a row. And it gets better still with the last four seeing them take maximum points, equalling the tournament record set by the Dragons in 2003/04, having downed RaboDirect PRO12 leaders Ulster 20-14 last time out to close the gap in second to just three points. That form is made all the more impressive with the last three victories coming without their international stars as they are on Six Nations duty. But the reinforcements arrive for the Cardiff clash and despite their dazzling form, Townsend has not been afraid to ring the changes as the Warriors head coach makes five personnel changes and one positional to the team that defeated Ulster. Captain Alastair Kellock, Duncan Weir and Jon Welsh all return to the Glasgow starting XV after returning from the Scotland camp, while Gordon Reid returns to the front row having missed the Ulster game having suffered a concussion the previous week against Dragons. Byron McGuigan starts on the right wing in place of Tommy Seymour, who picked up an injury in training, and Peter Horne moves to inside centre. Townsend said: “It’s nice to be able to welcome back those who have been on international duty and they will provide us with different options for this week’s game. “With those internationals back it makes selecting a starting XV that much harder as the squad has been performing at a very high level. Each player knows that they cannot take their place for granted as the quality of the squad is improving all the time. “They are driving each other to higher levels and that is fantastic for the coaches to see in training and what that can mean when they take to the pitch. “The supporters have been absolutely fantastic for us all season and we hope to have another big crowd cheering us on at Scotstoun on Friday night.” Despite Glasgow’s run of form Cardiff can head to Scotstoun in high spirits having won five of their last seven away games in the RaboDirect PRO12 The Blues have also lost just once in their last six trips to Scotland and they welcome back Wales squad members Lou Reed, Josh Navidi and Lloyd Williams for this clash. Second row Reed and flanker Navidi will both start at the Scotstoun Stadium, while scrum-half Williams is named among the replacements. With fellow Wales squad player Andries Pretorius out for the season after shoulder surgery, centre Gavin Evans takes up the captaincy duties. Cardiff Blues director of rugby Phil Davies said: “The Leinster and Ulster games were hard games for us but outside of that we've been competitive all year. "We've had some incredible experiences this year, some good and some not so good. "We have to go up to Glasgow and get stuck into them, make sure we win the ball and use it wisely in a controlled manner and play in their half. "We need to put pressure on them. If we do that I'm pretty confident we will score tries and potentially win some penalties. "Andries is obviously out with his shoulder injury so we have a good group of vice captains who are Gavin Evans, Josh Navidi, Bradley Davies, Dafydd Hewitt and Leigh Halfpenny who can all do the job for us. "Gavin has done a good job for us over the last few weeks and will continue as captain for this match." At Scotstoun Stadium , 7.35pm. Referee: George Clancy (IRFU, 52nd competition game) Assistant Referees: Andy Macpherson, Graeme Marshall, ( both SRU) Citing Commissioner: Douglas Hunter (SRU)
