Chris Cusiter returns to the Glasgow Warriors starting line-up and will captain his side as they seek to exact revenge on defending RaboDirect PRO12 champions Leinster for last season’s agonising semi-final defeat. The Scotland scrum-half has featured from the bench in the Warriors’ two matches so far this season – wins over Cardiff Blues and Ulster – after 11 months on the sidelines. The Warriors have not won their opening three encounters of a season since 2002/03 but they have won their last eight fixtures at Scotstoun in all competitions since Castres beat them there in the European Cup last December. Glasgow are winless in their last seven encounters with Leinster in all competitions, although they did draw 10-10 at Firhill in the RaboDirect PRO12 in February 2012. In total Gregor Townsend has made five changes and one positional switch to the side that defeated Ulster at Ravenhill last Friday. Alex Dunbar, Jon Welsh, Chris Fusaro, Richie Vernon and Cusiter come into the starting XV, with Sean Lamont moving from centre to wing. Townsend said: "We're delighted to have won our first two games of the season but we'll need to raise our level of performance against Leinster. "They have been consistently one of the leading teams in Europe for some time now and have only lost once in their last 20 games. It will require one of our very best performances in order to win on Friday. "There wasn't much between the sides last season and we came close to winning on a couple of occasions. We learned a great deal from those games; how we will have to work hard for 80 minutes and take any opportunities that come our way. "Our intensity at training has gone up a notch this week and the players are very focused on what is a highly anticipated match. "We're all really pleased to see Chris Cusiter back involved again after his injury lay-off, and as captain he will undoubtedly have a big role to play. "Our supporters were fantastic in our opening game against Cardiff and they helped us get the win that night. It looks like we're heading for another sell-out at Scotstoun, which is great news for the club and we're all looking forward to the game.” For Leinster, Shane Jennings leads the team for the third successive weekend for the trip to Scotland in a pack which sees Ireland hooker Richardt Strauss – who is set to make his 85th appearance – continue in the front row alongside Jack McGrath and Mike Ross. Meanwhile, Tom Denton is the only change to the pack and he starts at second row alongside Mike McCarthy. Scrum-half Isaac Boss will make his first start of the campaign after coming on as a replacement against the Ospreys to make his 79th Leinster appearance and he will form a new half-back partnership with Jimmy Gopperth. Ian Madigan lines out at full-back with Darragh Fanning and Dave Kearney named on the wings. It’s a third-straight start for Fanning, who admits Leinster are determined to make sure they get back to winning ways after a 29-29 draw with the Ospreys last time out. "It was very disappointing to get the draw in the end," said Fanning. "It was our first game of the year at the RDS and we had such a good crowd out and we have a proud home record so it was a bit of an anticlimax to get the draw. "I've been a bit of a kick-off return specialist at the moment because that's all I seem to be getting but I am looking for a bit more of the ball in the open play as I haven't got much in attack yet. "And I want to keep improving on my defence with a new system in place, keep trusting the new system and move forward with it." At Scotstoun Stadium, 7.35pm. Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (IRFU, 48th competition game) Assistant Referees: Neil Paterson, Adrian Graves (both SRU) Citing Commissioner: Paul Minto (SRU) TMO: Iain Ramage (SRU) LIVE on BBC ALBA and TG4
