Johnson makes long-awaited comeback

Sam Johnson will play his first game of the season for Glasgow Warriors tomorrow, starting against Cardiff Blues in the Heineken Champions Cup.

The centre, who was injured in the Warriors’ pre-season game against Northampton Saints, comes straight into the starting XV fresh from being named in Gregor Townsend’s Scotland squad for the 2018 Autumn Tests.

Johnson is joined in midfield by Huw Jones, and they both start outside of the same half-back pairing that played against Saracens at Scotstoun last Sunday.

DTH van der Merwe and Lee Jones start on the wings again and Tommy Seymour returns to the starting XV at full-back.

Dave Rennie has named an unchanged starting forward pack following their physical display against the English Champions. On the bench, Scott Cummings returns to the matchday squad to cover the second-row and Niko Matawalu will look to add his spark to the game when he comes on.

Rennie said: “Sam (Johnson) was excellent for us last year and has worked hard to recover from an injury he picked up in pre-season. He’s got a really good skillset and communicates well and he’s excited to get back out there.

“We were happy with our physicality and the effort we saw against Saracens and we’ll need to be just as aggressive against Cardiff who picked up a good win in France in Round 1.”

Winger Christian Wade is set to leave Wasps and attempt to make a move into the NFL.

He was absent from the 23-man squad later named for the Champions Cup fixture against Bath.

With some 82 Premiership tries, Wade is currently third on the league’s all-time scorer list. Wade, 27, won his so-far only England cap during 2013. He was also part of that year’s British and Irish Lions squad on the tour of Australia.

Sam Johnson will play his first game of the season against Cardiff Blues.