Glasgow Warriors coach Gregor Townsend has urged his squad to step up to the plate for tonight's GUINNESS PRO12 match against table-topping Ulster

The Scotstoun side will be without five key players who are on RBS 6 Nations duty with Scotland.

And they have only managed one win from their last six games, though there were encouraging signs in last month's 20-20 draw with Ospreys.

But Townsend is confident his players can rise to the challenge at the Kingspan Stadium, which kicks off at 7.30pm and is live on Sky Sports.

He said: “We’re heading to the Kingspan Stadium expecting a tough match against one of the strongest teams in the league, who are currently top of the GUINNESS PRO12.

“We played well in Wales against Ospreys for around 60-65 minutes, but we’ll need an 80 minute performance tomorrow night to come away with a positive result. I’m looking forward to seeing this group of players front up in what is a big game for the club."

Townsend is set to hand a first full start to Gregor Hunter, who signed for the Warriors in the summer of 2014.

He recovered from injury to go on and win the Melrose 7s last year, as well as making his Warriors debut coming off the bench against Munster earlier this season.

Peter Murchie starts at full-back, while Rory Hughes starts on the left wing following his try against Ospreys.

On the opposite wing is Lee Jones.

Glenn Bryce and Sam Johnson start at centre, with Johnson starting his fourth consecutive game.

Hunter and Ali Price make up the half-back pairing.

In the front-row, Ryan Grant, Pat MacArthur and Sila Puafisi will pack down.

Greg Peterson and Leone Nakarawa pair up in the second-row with Number 8 Ryan Wilson captaining the team for the second game in-a-row.

Simone Favaro and Rob Harley are the named flankers.

Alex Allan, Josh Strauss, Chris Fusaro and Peter Horne have all returned from Scotland duty and are selected on the bench along with James Malcolm, D’arcy Rae, Grayson Hart and Taqele Naiyaravoro.

Townsend added: “Gregor Hunter has worked really hard in training this season and has been playing regularly for Glasgow Hawks, so we're expecting him to play well in a Warriors shirt tonight.”