Johnson knows it’s win or bust in the Valley of the Blues

SAM JOHNSON will make his first appearance of the season for Glasgow Warriors today — and the stakes could not be any higher.

They travel to Wales to face Cardiff Blues, knowing that victory is essential after losing their opening Champions Cup fixture against Saracens last week.

With the return match against Sarries being the final game in Pool Three in January, Johnson knows Warriors cannot afford any slip-ups today. Already, it’s a case of do or die.

‘We don’t want to put pressure on ourselves, but, if you lose your first two games, then you’re probably out of Europe,’ said Johnson (right), who was called up to the Scotland squad in midweek for the upcoming autumn Tests.

‘We would then have to go to Saracens and win in the final game. So we obviously want to get our campaign up and running against Cardiff.

‘We know it’ll be difficult. We put on a good show against Saracens last week, but, at the end of the day, we still lost.

‘So we obviously want to rectify that. We’ll go out there and look to rip into Cardiff. It’s important that we play positively.

‘We have a good record against them. But they had a great victory last week against Lyon, so we know they’re going to come flying at us.

‘They’ll have the home crowd behind them and will be really fired up. It’s up to us to match it — and then some.’ Johnson has recovered from an injury he suffered in pre-season and head coach Dave Rennie has chosen to throw him straight back into the mix.

He takes the place of Alex Dunbar at centre, while Tommy Seymour replaces Ruaridh Jackson at full-back.

‘It is unfortunate for Alex to have picked up a head knock last week,’ said Johnson. ‘But that’s the way sport works — one guy drops out and another guy gets an opportunity.

‘It has been a good week for me personally.

‘Being called up to the Scotland squad is a huge honour for me and my family.

‘It’s not something I was really thinking about when I came over a few years ago from Australia.

‘I was just a 22-year-old going to play rugby on the other side of the world.

‘It was over the summer that I became more aware of the fact that it was a real possibility. I’m really proud and I’m buzzing to pull on the Scotland jersey for the first time.’