Wilson sees the positives as wounded Warriors prepare for final tilt at top-three spot

GLASGOW coach Danny Wilson is looking on the bright side ahead of this evening’s must-win match against Ospreys, despite being without 21 members of his squad. Twelve players are on the injury list, seven are away on Scotland duty, and two – Adam Hastings and Zander Fagerson – are suspended.

But Wilson, whose team need a victory to keep alive their hopes of finishing in the top three in PRO14 Conference A and so qualifying for next season’s Champions Cup, said that in the circumstances he was actually quite encouraged by the strength of the squad he was able to put out. “I’m looking at that team and going the other way and thinking it’s a good team actually on paper considering we have 21 unavailable,” he said.

“That’s a positive. Ospreys will be in a similar position with injuries and players away with Wales. Not as many as us but enough to make a dent. So it should be two evenlymatched teams, which should make for a good game.”

The Warriors have three games to go including this one, and are 10 points behind Ospreys, who have only Leinster left to play after tonight. With matches against the Dragons and Benetton still to come, Wilson is targeting three wins out of three. A bonus-point victory tonight would be very useful, but the coach will tell his team to concentrate on making sure the game is in the bag before going for the four tries they need for a bonus.

“We’ve got to win three games of rugby and that’s what we’ve got to stay focused on. Yes, bonus points might come into it, but we’ve got to get to a point where we’ve got an opportunity to go for a bonus point – and the way to do that is to win the game. If you can get ahead enough it changes the opposition’s approach.”

Wilson has made seven changes from the team that began last week’s win in Italy against Zebre. Nick Grigg is back at centre after an impressive showing off the bench in that 31-20 result, while Robbie Fergusson, Lee Jones and Sean Kennedy are the other new backs. Up front there are starts for Aki Seiuli, James Scott and Leone Nakarawa.

Substitute stand-off Ian

Keatley, who made his debut last week, is unlikely to be offered a new contract when his current short-term deal runs out at the end of the season following the recruitment of Argentina international Domingo Miotti.

“Our current budget situation would make it difficult to sign another 10, but never say never, because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” added Wilson, who will have Duncan Weir and Ross Thompson to call on next season as well as Miotti.

Gregor Brown, who injured a knee last week on his first start for the Warriors, is now expected to be out for the rest of the season. Brown’s fellow forward Chris Fusaro will also miss out on the rest of the campaign as he recovers from knee surgery following an injury.

Glasgow Warriors (v Ospreys at

Scotstoun, tonight, 8pm): O Smith; R

McLean, N Grigg, R Fergusson, L Jones; R

Thompson, S Kennedy; A Seiuli, G Stewart,

E Pieretto, J Scott, L Nakarawa, R Harley, T

Gordon, R Wilson (captain). Substitutes: J

Matthews, D Evans, D Rae, K McDonald, T

Ioane, J Dobie, I Keatley, R Tagive.

Ospreys: D Evans (captain); D Cross, O

Watkin, J Hawkins, K Giles; L Price, R

Morgan-Williams; G Phillips, I Phillips, M

Fia, L Ashley, R Davies, W Griffiths, M

Morris, G Evans. Substitutes: D Lake, R

Henry, T Botha, O Cracknell, S Cross, S

Venter, J Thomas, T Thomas-Wheeler.

Referee: S Grove-White (Scotland).