Warriors fired up for Italian job

THE next 10 days should be the perfect time to visit Italy, especially if you are a Glasgow Warriors player. Under perfect blue skies they will face Treviso on Saturday, then they have a warm-weather training camp for five days, before travelling to Parma to take on Zebre the following Friday. They should return from the trip with not only a good tan, but with two wins — and preferably of the bonus-point variety. Losing either match is simply not an option. Warriors captain Jonny Gray has already warned his team-mates to guard against complacency. And that is the only thing that could cost them victory against the two whipping boys of the Pro12 league. The skipper said all the right things about taking nothing for granted as he previewed the Treviso game earlier this week. But he must be quietly confident his team will pile on the points against the bottom club. Stuart Hogg provided the spark in the Warriors’ vital home win over Ulster last weekend. There is every chance he could be rested but Gregor Townsend will still have enough in the back division, with Mark Bennett, Alex Dunbar, Tommy Seymour and Sean Lamont all capable of running in lots of tries. These two games are the best back-to-back fixtures Glasgow could have had at this vital stage of the season. After that, they travel to Wales to take on a John Barclay-inspired Scarlets team who are also in the hunt for a top-four place. Going into that tough game in Llanelli with two confidenceboosting wins would be the perfect way to keep the defending champions’ play-off chances on track.