Fly-half Jones back for Scarlets

Stephen Jones came off the bench against Munster

Glasgow give starts to five departing players on what is their final home game of a poor Magners League campaign.

Bernardo Stortoni, Kevin Tkachuk, Aly Muldowney, Richie Vernon and James Eddie all say their Firhill farewells.

Stephen Jones reclaims the Scarlets’ fly-half spot for Friday’s crucial visit to the west of Scotland.

Jones takes over from Rhys Priestland, Scott Williams is at centre instead of Regan King and Aaron Shingler replaces Josh Turnbull at lock.

The Scarlets’ changes come in the wake of their 13-6 defeat by Munster as they bid for the play-offs, while Glasgow hope to bounce back from a 19-16 loss in Treviso.

The Scarlets lie sixth on 52 points, four points below Cardiff Blues while the Dragons are eight points behind the Llanelli-based side.

While the Scarlets can claim a top-four play-off spot, the Dragons could pip them to one of Wales’ three Heineken Cup spots for next season.

Glasgow have won only two of their last 10 league games, but are defending a record of never having suffered a double-season’s defeat by the Scarlets.

The home side must continue without rested international trio John Barclay, Richie Gray and Alastair Kellock.

However, Chris Cusiter and Graeme Morrison both start as they continue to regain match fitness after long absences through injury.

“It’s great to have a guy the quality of Chris Cusiter back who will be making his first appearance at Firhill this season,” said head coach Sean Lineen. “Graeme Morrison scored a cracker last week as well so they’re like new signings. Their enthusiasm rubs off on the other players.

“It’s going to be a tough game. Llanelli play a fantastic brand of rugby so we can’t sit off and watch them play it.”

Scarlets boss Nigel Davies said: “We were disappointed with the final result last week against Munster, in many areas of the game we out-played and performed them, but lacked that edge and winning mentality – which Munster have.

“It was a performance reflective of our season, with a lot of promise but we’re just not able to finish off tight encounters.

“We’ve created lots of scoring opportunities and played all the rugby – but we have to be more accurate and balance our performance with the right mentality to win.

“The structure’s good, and defensively since Europe we’ve been one of the top three performers in the league.

“There’s a lot of good stuff happening but we’re just not nailing those wins – it’s a big frustration to us and we have to put it right.

“We’ve been very hard on ourselves this week – we have to get results in our next two games and that is all that we can focus on.

“Europe is important to us and to maintain control of that we have to win our final games.

“We know that there’s pressure on, but we have to deal with that and I’m expecting this team to go out there and perform.

“It’s a difficult place to play and Glasgow will play to their strengths and their home field.

“We’ve trained on a reduced size pitch this week and the side that wins the kicking battle and exerts the most pressure in that area will undoubtedly come out on top.”

Glasgow: Bernardo Stortoni, Hefin O’Hare, Peter Murchie, Graeme Morrison (capt), DTH van der Merwe, Ruaridh Jackson, Chris Cusiter, Kevin Tkachuk, Dougie Hall, Moray Low, Aly Muldowney, Tom Ryder, James Eddie, Richie Vernon, Johnnie Beattie.

Replacements: Fergus Thomson, Jon Welsh, Ryan Grant, Robert Harley, Ryan Wilson, Duncan Weir, Colin Gregor, Federico Aramburu.

Scarlets: Morgan Stoddart; George North, Gareth Maule, Scott Williams, Sean Lamont; Stephen Jones, Tavis Knoyle; Iestyn Thomas, Matthew Rees (capt), Rhys Thomas, Lou Reed, Aaron Shingler, Rob McCusker, Johnathan Edwards, Ben Morgan.

Replacements: Emyr Phillips, Phil John, Simon Gardiner, Dominic Day, David Lyons, Martin Roberts, Rhys Priestland, Daniel Evans.

Referee: Carlo Damasco (Italy)

Assistant referees: Andy Ireland, Achie McInally (Scotland)

TMO: Jim Yuile (Scotland)