WHEN your play-off ambitions are hanging by the most slender of threads and you are about to visit one of the teams who have been dominating the Guinness PRO12 all season, the last thing you want is to be blooding raw, untried players.
That, though, is exactly the headache facing Gregor Townsend, the Glasgow Warriors head coach, who is giving a club debut to one player, a first start to another and a first outing in his specialist role to a third.
"It has been the same situation for the last two years. It is a challenge," Townsend admitted. "It is as much of a challenge for the players who are away with Scotland for part of the week and then come back as it is for those stepping in. We do have a good group of players here.
"We will give it everything down at the Ospreys knowing that we have to start picking up points. It is exciting when you have players from last season's Under 20s getting a go, what we like from those players is that they really take the game to the opposition. They have that 'can't wait to play mindset' which can be a powerful blend."
In all he has three of last season's Under-20s in action, led by Scott Cummings, scorer of two tries from the second row last week, along side Lewis Wynne, getting his first run at No.8 since last year and Matt Smith, who is making his debut.
There is another newcomer in the front row where Melrose's Jamie Bhatti – who will join Glasgow next season – gets his first start after an impressive rumble off the bench last week and three weeks after arriving Brandon Thomson get a chance to play at fly half.
With all that new blood around, their chances pretty much depend on the experienced spine of the team with Peter Horne taking over the captaincy and the likes of former All Black Corey Flynn at hooker.
"We have got a strong leadership group through this period even though there are a lot of players away," Townsend added.
Ospreys: D Evans; K Giles, A Beck, J Matavesi, H Dirksen; L Price, B Leonard (C); P James, H Gustafson, B Mujati, L Ashley, R Thornton, T Ardron, O Cracknell, D Baker. Replacements: I Phillips, G Thomas, R Jones, J King, S Underhill, T Habberfield, K Fonotia, D Howells.
Glasgow Warriors: P Murchie; J Bulumakau, N Grigg, P Horne (C), R Hughes; B Thomson, G Hart; J Bhatti, C Flynn, S Puafisi, B Alainu’uese, S Cummings, R Harley, M Smith, L Wynne. Replacements: P MacArthur, A Allan, D Rae, T Uanivi, C Fusaro, N Kenatale, R Vernon, R Tagive.
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