Glasgow Warriors may be the reigning GUINNESS PRO12 champions but head coach Gregor Townsend believes his side are taking on the best team in the competition this weekend.

Leinster, who beat the Warriors in the 2014 PRO12 Final are the visitors to Scotstoun on Saturday, with both sides sitting in the top half of the table.

With 27 points to Glasgow’s 26, the Irish province are narrowly inside the top four, where both sides will expect to be at the end of the regular season.

The Warriors will leapfrog their visitors with a win and Gregor Townsend has made a handful of changes to the side that edge past Benetton Treviso last weekend, including handing hooker James Malcolm his first GUINNESS PRO12 start.

“James has worked really hard in training and made notable contributions when he came on against Cardiff Blues and Benetton Treviso, so he deserves the opportunity,” said Townsend. “We're looking forward to seeing him play.

"Any time you play Leinster is exciting. They've been the best team in our league over the last five or six years and they've got real quality.

"Leinster come into the game off the back of a very good win last weekend against Ulster and they are one of the teams in the top half of the table who will be looking to get a string of results to move them up into the play-off positions.”

Props Ryan Grant and Sila Puafisi start either side of Malcolm in the front row, while Leone Nakarawa replaces Tim Swinson in the second for his 50th Warriors appearance.

Josh Strauss starts at blindside, Simone Favaro at openside and, after his match-winning try against Benetton Treviso, Adam Ashe continues at No.8.

There is an all-new half-back partnership of Mike Blair and Duncan Weir, while Peter Horne is inside centre, Alex Dunbar shifts to outside centre and Tommy Seymour is drafted in on the left wing.

Glasgow have won their last three GUINNESS PRO12 encounters, since tripping up at Leinster, while they have lost just once at Scotstoun in their last 25 in the competition.

Leinster’s only win in Scotland in their last five visits was against Edinburgh at BT Murrayfield in round 22 last year but they are attempting a regular season double over Warriors for the first time since 2012/13.

Head coach Leo Cullen has made eight changes to his XV, with Rob Kearney returning at full-back and brother Dave on the left wing.

Luke Fitzgerald shifts to inside centre, while Ian Madigan goes to fly-half and Eoin Reddan in handed the No.9 jersey.

Cian Healy, Richardt Strauss and Marty Moore form all-new front row, Tom Denton starts in the engine room and Jordi Murphy starts at No.8, while blindside flanker Rhys Ruddock captains Leinster for first time this season.

“Hopefully we'll improve this week and be better again at the weekend because we'll need to be against Glasgow,” said Reddan.

"There's a good level of honesty there from the coaching staff to us about what we need to improve and that's helping us.

“It's making sure that we know where we're at every week, and when you know where you're at you've a chance of moving forward and that's what we're doing."

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At Scotstoun Stadium, 3pm. Live on Sky Sports
Referee: Nigel Owens (WRU, 129th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Lloyd Linton, Dunx McClement (both SRU)
Citing Commissioner: Paul Minto (SRU)
TMO: Jim Yuille (SRU)