WITH Europe effectively dead and buried, Glasgow Warriors have gone all adventurous as they try to keep their perfect start to the Guinness PRO14 season going. That they are playing the Southern Kings, the side with the worst record in the tournament helps, but it is still a young, untested side they are putting out.

It is not hard to see why. With 19 players in the Scotland training squad next week, they are going to need these players when they play the Ospreys away on the same weekend as the national team play Australia and again in the spring, during the RBS Six Nations Championship. They have to be blooded.

Given the teething problems that have rocked the Southern Kings, there can be no better game to give first starts to youngsters you are going to have to depend on. Dave Rennie, the head coach has done exactly that. George Horne, younger brother of club stalwart Peter, will be given the chance to forge a new half-back partnership with Adam Hastings and it could be a unit we see a lot of this season.

Peter Horne is in fact one of the 15 players listed as missing the game through injury, one of three to be ruled out after head knocks sustained in last week's defeat by Leinster, but would probably have been rested anyway. Certainly Rennie is taking the chance to rest Finn Russell, with Ruaridh Jackson on standby should anything happen to Hastings.

Then, add a young back row with Matt Smith and Matt Fagerson, one newly out of the Under 20s, one still available, alongside Rob Harley and this is a team of great potential but limited experience particularly in that vital central section wearing the numbers between six and 10.

There is a bit more experience in the front five, where Alex Allan starts and Ryan Grant is on standby to make his return to the club he left last year while Jonny Gray and Scott Cummings should form a potent second row partnership.

There is also a bit more experience out wide with Hogg back in the running, Lee Jones forcing his way back into the Scotland squad and Niko Matawalu on the other wing to provide a taste of the unpredictable. The big test is that bit in the middle linking those units.

Rennie was at pains to refute any suggestion that he choices smack of complacency. He knows the statistics don't tell the whole story when it comes to the Kings. Yes they have lost every game, some heavily, but that bald fact ignores the impossible position they were put in at the start of the season.

Their Super Rugby players saw the writing on the wall when it was announced that two South African sides would be cut and fled for contracts elsewhere. So when the PRO14 rode to the rescue, they team had effectively disbanded and had to start from scratch with only 10 days to build the team before the season started.

Now they have had a couple of weeks off to work together and try to get the players operating as a team.They have also been able to continue the recruitment with a new fly half in Martin Du Toit and other newcomers on the bench.

As an individual battle, there should be none better than the clash between Stuart Hogg, making his competition debut for the season after returning to action last week, and Masixole Banda, the exciting Kings full back who has made 56 carries to beat 20 defenders – third in the overall PRO14 statistics – and make 12 offloads – 4th best in the tournament.

All of which suggests an exciting game. Both sides are full of runners and individual threats, both have struggled this season to hang onto the ball and patiently build phases in the way that Glasgow were shown by both Exeter and Leinster in Europe.

Which could be a problem for Gregor Townsend, the Scotland head coach. He will need that ability to simply keep the ball for minutes at a time if they are to even start to compete with the likes of New Zealand and Australia next month.

As a result, he will be desperately hoping the likes of Zander Fagerson, Gray and Cummings, who are all gunning for spots in his November pack, can demonstrate they have learned their lessons from Europe.

The main one is that they patience in keeping the ball. There are two many players trying to make something magical happen every time they touch the ball, but there is equal merit in simply hanging onto it until the openings come naturally. If Glasgow can show they have learned that lesson, they should not only win but also collect their fifth scoring bonus point of the season.

Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg; L Jones, N Grigg, S Johnson, N Matawalu; A Hastings, G Horne; A Allan, P MacArthur, Z Fagerson, S Cummings, J Gray, R Harley (C), M Smith, M Fagerson. Replacements: G Turner, R Grant, A Nicol, G Peterson, L Wynne, R Jackson, S McDowall, L Masaga.

Southern Kings: M Banda; Y Penxe, B Klaasen, L Vulindlu, A Bock; M Du Toit, R van Rooyen; S Ferreira, M Willemse (C), R De Klerk, S Greeff, B De Wee, A Ntsila, J van Vuuren, R Lerm. Replacements: T Balekile, M Majola, M Dreyer, L Mtyanda, K Majola, R Gouws, O Zono, J Nel.

Referee: M Adamson (Scotland)