GREGOR Townsend has insisted he is taking nothing for granted when his Glasgow Warriors side play the Dragons tonight - despite the poor start the Welsh side have made to the season.

The Newport-based outfit have lost three of their four games so far, and look little better than last season when they finished 10th in the PRO12. But Townsend has a lot of injury worries to cope with, and admitted he is concerned that a full-strength Dragons side could cause big problems.

“We know how tough it’s going to be at the Dragons,” Townsend said yesterday. “They’ve got a full squad - they rested a few players last week.

“They have a physical brand of rugby, and have one of the best opensides in the league, Nic Cudd. He was ranked second in terms of turnovers behind James Davies last year - he got 30, Davies got 32.”

The Warriors’ main concerns are in the forwards, where the players out because of injury include prop Gordon Reid, locks Tom Swinson and Tjiuee Uanivi, and opensides Simone Favaro and Chris Fusaro. Those absentees mean places in the starting line-up for Alex Allan in the front row and Rob Harley in the second, while hooker Fraser Brown slots in from kick-off in the back row.

Brown began life as a flanker before moving up to hooker, and Townsend has been pleased by the way in which he has readapted to his original position. “Last week he was one of our best performers,” the coach said. “He got a defensive award following the game and he worked really hard during it - he ran more than 8000 metres, which was the most for any forward.

“He can play openside really well, and just now with a lot of injuries he’s done a good job. There are a lot of similarities in the modern game between openside and hooker with the way they defend during lineouts, and the dynamism that you see in the modern hooker is again very similar to a 7. Fraser fits that role.”

There are 10 games to go, including tonight’s, before the Warriors play Edinburgh, but Townsend also offered some encouragement to his old Scotland team-mate Duncan Hodge, who became the capital side’s acting head coach earlier this week, and some sympathy to departing coach Alan Solomons.

“I wish Alan very well in the next chapter of his career,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed coaching against him and we’ve had a really good relationship off the field. He’s won the last three as well.

“We all understand these things happen in rugby. It’s an opportunity now for Duncan. He’s really detailed in his preparation. He loves coaching, loves the game, and coming from a stand-off point of view will see things more attacking-wise.”

Asked what advice he would give Hodge, Townsend added: “Be yourself. Be your own personality and follow through on what you believe in. He’s got the knowledge of the game, he wants to do it, so I’m sure he’ll do very well.”

Glasgow Warriors (v Newport Gwent Dragons at Rodney Parade, tonight, 7.35pm, live on BBC Alba): P Murchie; T Seymour, M Bennett, A Dunbar, R Hughes; F Russell, H Pyrgos; A Allan, C Flynn, S Puafisi, R Harley, J Gray, L Wynne, F Brown, J Strauss. Substitutes: P MacArthur, D Sears-Duru, D Rae, R McAlpine, M Fagerson, A Price, R Clegg, L Sarto.