A MINOR shoulder injury has side-lined Jack Dempsey so Glasgow Warriors head coach Danny Wilson has taken the opportunity to try out a new blend in his back-row against Newcastle Falcons tonight, with Rory Darge swapping from his customary openside flanker berth to No 8 and Tom Gordon coming back from injury to wear the No 7 shirt. 

“It’s a little bit about how we want to play and a little bit about players in form,” explained Wilson, who confirmed that he expects Dempsey back in time for Glasgow’s trip to South Africa to take on the Bulls next Friday and the Stormers seven days’ later. 

“What number he [Darge] wears on his back is irrelevant really, it’s about putting two sevens out there on the field with the lineout presence and the leadership of Ryan Wilson to balance it.  

“Tom Gordon was outstanding against Edinburgh until he got that knee injury and I’m hoping he’ll hit that form again. You’ve got two guys there who are very quick around the park. They both carry, they are short powerful men and effective around the breakdown, and on a fast track against opponents who want to play you’re going to need that.

“I’m quite excited about the back-row combination. I played two sevens quite a bit when I was [heads coach] at Cardiff, with Ellis Jenkins and Sam Warburton, and with Josh Navidi it was three sevens at times. I think it makes for a fast game of rugby.” 

Wilson has made seven personnel in total to the starting XV he sent out against Zebre a fortnight ago. 

Up front, Simon Berghan comes in at tight-head prop, and Richie Gray will add some valuable bulk to the middle-row, with Zander Fagerson and Rob Harley dropping to a strong looking bench. 

Behind the scrum, Ali Price and Sam Johnson return from their short post-Six Nations breaks at scrum-half and inside-centre, respectively, while Sione Tuipulotu has got past the hamstring injury which kept him out against Zebre so starts at outside-centre, and Josh McKay comes in at full-back. 

“Jamie Dobie has been ill this week, so he’s not available, otherwise you might have seen him involved as well,” added Wilson. 

Wilson’s team selection for tonight’s match is clearly designed to make use of the fast artificial surface at Kingston Park, but he stressed that the team have to be able to adapy of plan A doesn’t work. 

“We need to be able to grow more than one threat,” he said. “Our identity here for a long time has been our attacking threat, playing fast, expansive rugby. We need to be able to keep doing that and our try count proves we can. 

“But we also need a weapon at set-piece, and I think we are slowly developing that. Our driving lineout means that you can kick to the corner instead of going for three points – we can try to turn three into seven points - and we’ve done that in our last few games. We’ve scored a lot from driving lineouts and that is becoming a weapon for us. 

“The other part is making sure we can defend well, in both halves … making sure we don’t fall away at the end of games defensively. I think we’ve recognised there are some improvements there. 

“The last point is that in previous years our discipline has been dreadful, with the penalty count in double figures in every game. At the moment it’s averaging eight a game and to go to Newcastle and win it has to be eight or less to give yourself the best chance. 

“I think it will be an exciting game,” he concluded. “They’ve picked a strong midfield and a very fast, dangerous back three, with ours being very similar. Both teams will look to use those back lines, so I think it could make for quite a fast, exciting game on a fast track with the surface.” 

Glasgow Warriors (v Newcastle Falcons at Kingston Park, Friday 8pm): J McKay; S Cancelliere, S Tuipulotu, S Johnson, K Steyn; R Thompson, A Price; O Kebble, J Matthews, S Berghan, S Cummings, R Gray R Wilson (captain), T Gordon, R Darge. Substitutes: G Turner, J Bhatti, Z Fagerson, R Harley, A Miller, S Kennedy, D Weir, O Smith. 

Newcastle Falcons: T Penny; A Radwan, G Wacokecoke, L Burrell, B Stevenson; B Connon, L Schreuder; A Brocklebank, G McGuigan, T Davison, G Peterson, S Robinson, J Basham, W Welch (captain), F Lockwood. Substitutes: J Blamire, K Cooper, M Tampin, W Montgomery, T Marshall, C Nordli-Kelemeti, J Hodgson, I Stephens. 

Referee: Tual Tainini (France)