GLASGOW and Scotland assistant coach Matt Taylor has insisted that Henry Pyrgos and Ali Price will do the national team proud on Saturday - no matter which one starts the Six Nations Championship match against Wales.

The two Warriors scrum-halves are scrapping it out for the No 9 jersey after captain Greig Laidlaw was ruled out of the rest of the tournament by injury. And it could also be a Glasgow player who takes over as skipper, with Jonny Gray up against ex-Warrior John Barclay for the honour.

“Ali is a tremendously exciting player with ball in hand,” Taylor said yesterday when asked to compare Price and Pyrgos. “He’s got that turn of speed off the mark that really catches teams off guard.

“I look at the example of him igniting the Georgia game [in November] with that try late on. That’s a really good example of what he can do.

“Having been involved with Henry for a number of years at Glasgow and Scotland, I know that he’s a very good organiser who brings the rest of the group forward – and he’s a leader, as well. He’s very confident in how he plays, what he does, his structures and things like that.

“So I would say they both have their certain strengths. We’re lucky to have both of them.

“It depends on how we want to start the game and how we want to finish the game.

‘There’s an excitement about the fact that we’ve got both to choose from, because they are both really good players.”

Pyrgos is joint-captain at Glasgow along with Gray, but Taylor said that would not on its own tip the balance in his favour against Price. “Look, he’s an exceptional leader.

“But I think those two players will be picked on what we want to get out of the game, first and foremost, rather than Henry getting picked just because he’s one of the senior leaders at Glasgow and with Scotland. It will be about what we want to get out of that position in the game.

“They’ve both worked with Finn [Russell] often enough at Glasgow – and they’re both on the same wavelength as Finn. They both have parts to play at Glasgow, and again, I think that’s a strength.”

Barclay took over from Laidlaw in the Stade de France before being forced off himself with an injury. Gray took over from him then, but again, Taylor was giving nothing away about which one would be named captain when the team is announced on Thursday.

“John probably speaks more than Jonny, although Jonny does speak more than you might expect,” the coach said after being asked how the two forwards differed in the way they led a team. “Jonny is more of a doing captain.

“Barclay is a doing captain but he probably talks more. That’s the main difference.

“You probably already know that from Jonny’s media interviews. It’s hard to extract anything from him!”

Meanwhile, after a week which saw Scotland lose Warriors forward Josh Strauss for the rest of the Championship as well as Laidlaw, Scotland’s injury list is clearing up. The squad all reported for duty yesterday, with the main concerns being Glasgow centre Mark Bennett, who has a head knock, and Saracens winger Sean Maitland. Both sat out training but could be passed fit today.