Gregor Townsend warned his Glasgow Warriors players they must raise their game if they are to have any hope of beating Guinness PRO12 contenders Leinster at Scotstoun on Saturday.

It is a clash of former champions, with four-time winners Leinster taking on a Warriors side full of confidence after dismantling reigning Guinness PRO12 champions Connacht 41-5 at the Sportsground in Round One.

The last time these two sides met Glasgow came out on top in a tense 12-6 victory and Townsend has the luxury of fielding 14 full internationals, with Fijian Sila Puafisi coming in for Zander Fagerson and Fraser Brown for Pat Macarthur.

Nevertheless, Townsend is expecting a brutal clash when the two Guinness PRO12 heavyweights meet.

‘We’re playing the favourites,” Townsend said. “They’ve been the best team in our competition, or one of the best, for the past few years, they were the best team in Europe for two or three years.

“They have some quality young players coming through. For me they are the benchmark.

“We have to bring the players up again because of the challenge of Leinster.

“We have to front up physically, which we did last week, because they really challenge you around the breakdown and they try and play at a high tempo.

“The players will be excited and highly motivated because we’re back at home and likely to be a capacity crowd.

“You will get that energy from them but I think we have to raise our focus because of the opponent.”

Leinster were made to work incredibly hard for a 20-8 win over Benetton Treviso at the RDS Arena, with coach Leo Cullen making three changes to last week’s starting line-up.

Star debutant last weekend Joey Carberry continues at outside-half for the Irishmen, with James Tracy coming in at hooker, Jordi Murphy starting his first game of the season at No.8 and Dave Kearney recovering from a shoulder injury to start on the wing.

Rob Kearney believes 20-year-old fly-half Carberry can be the key for Leinster this season after he shone last time out – scoring two exceptional individual tries – against Treviso.

“It was brilliant, he’s a superb player and I suppose we’ve seen that in training over the past couple of months and he has starred in the AIL final last year,” the Lions full-back said.

“It’s really important that you reward guys who are doing that; it’s a great vindication to the club game as well, that if you progress and perform really well then you will get your opportunities.

“I know our scouts work really hard to make sure that we’re picking out these guys who display great talent at a young age.

“He came in on Friday and did superbly, showing that he was right at home at this level.”

Glasgow Warriors:

Stuart Hogg; Leonardo Sarto, Alex Dunbar, Sam Johnson, Tommy Seymour; Peter Horne, Henry Pyrgos; Gordon Reid, Fraser Brown, Sila Puafisi, Tim Swinson, Jonny Gray, Rob Harley, Simone Favaro, Ryan Wilson

Replacements: Corey Flynn, Alex Allan, Zander Fagerson, Tjiuee Uanivi, Lewis Wynne, Ali Price, Rory Clegg, Lee Jones

Leinster:

Rob Kearney; Fergus McFadden, Garry Ringrose, Noel Reid, Dave Kearney; Joey Carbery, Luke McGrath; Cian Healy, James Tracy, Michael Bent, Mike McCarthy, Ross Molony, Dan Leavy, Josh van der Flier, Jordi Murphy

Replacements: Bryan Byrne, Peter Dooley, Tadhg Furlong, Mick Kearney, Dominic Ryan, Jamison Gibson Park, Cathal Marsh, Zane Kirchner

Overall Guinness PRO12 head to head record:

Played 32, Glasgow Warriors won 10, Leinster won 20 and 2 games drawn.

At Scotstoun Stadium, 3pm. Live on Sky Sports
Referee: John Lacey (IRFU, 55th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Dan Jones (WRU), Dunx McClement (SRU)
Citing Commissioner: John Montgomery (SRU)
TMO: Gareth Simmonds (WRU)