Richie Gray gears up for Glasgow's 'game of the season'

ONE of Glasgow's most promising young players has termed tonight's match with Connacht possibly the biggest match of the season so far as the shadow side bid to rebound from the defeat to Cardiff and get their Magners League aspirations back on track.

Richie Gray is on the fringes of the Scotland team, but lost his place in the squad after winning his first cap off the bench against France when Nathan Hines was injured and coach Andy Robinson turned to Jim Hamilton for experience. He is obviously keen to return to the Test picture this season, but acknowledged that a repeat of the deflating Firhill loss to Cardiff in Galway tonight will not do him or his teammates any good.

"I think certainly everyone has realised how important this game is," said the 6ft 9in lock. "Sitting at the top of the league we had a disappointing loss to Cardiff and it shows how quickly you can drop back down the table.

"If we win (against Connacht] it will keep us in second place, but if we lose we'll be back down in a massive group of teams, and things start to become tough, so we know that Friday night is massive. This is certainly one of the biggest games of the season for us, if not the biggest, so all the concentration is on winning this game."

There is no doubt that the Glasgow side has been a victim of its own success in supplying many more players to the Scotland squad this season on the back of improved form, but Gray is hopeful that the fact the players left behind have now had a game under their belts, albeit a fortnight ago, will help them return to winning ways.

They currently lie second in the Magners League, and are unbeaten in their last four away encounters in the Magners League. They have never before managed a sequence of five league away games without losing, but they have only won at Connacht once in the league - a 40-23 triumph in April, 2007.

Connacht are missing four players to injury, including powerful no8 Ray Ofisa, but recall Aidan Wynne, Frank Murphy, Jamie Hagan, Mike McCarthy and Johnny O'Connor to the side this week. They are gritty with some good backs, and Gray knows Glasgow have to dominate up front if they are to claim the points.

He added: " Connacht are a solid team and have been that team basically all season and will know each other inside out. At home they are one of the toughest teams to play; they make themselves so tough to beat so there's no denying how hard the challenge will be.

"I think it's different for any team in the world to come together and play well when you've not been together all season, but we have been training really well since the Cardiff game and hopefully now it all clicks into place. The first intention is to win for Glasgow , but it would also be good to nice to have a good performance and send a positive message (to the Scotland coaches]."

Glasgow (v Connacht at the Galway Sportsground, 8pm): B Stortoni; C Shaw, P Murchie, P Horne, DTH van der Merwe; R Jackson, M McMillan (capt); J Welsh, D Hall, E Kalman, T Barker, D Turner, J Eddie, C Forrester, R Vernon.

Subs: F Thomson, K Tkachuk , R Gray, C Fusaro (Heriot's), C Gregor, C Kinloch, H O'Hare.

Connacht: G Duffy; T Nathan, K Matthews, A Wynne, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, J Hagan, M Swift, M McCarthy, J Muldoon (capt), J O'Connor, G Naoupu.

Subs: A Flavin, R Morris, B Upton , M McComish, C O'Loughlin, M Nikora, B Tuohy.