THE fundamental tenet of my Glasgow team's rugby style will be speed.

I want Glasgow playing the fastest brand of rugby both in the RaboDirect PRO12 and the Heineken Cup.

That encompasses the speed we run onto the ball, our speed in defence, the speed we attack the breakdown and the speed of our decision making processes.

So we have spent a lot of time on game-related exercises with the ball in use from the first day of pre-season.

But while the tempo we do everything at must be lifted it must also be executed in an accurate and disciplined manner if it is to be successful.

Our rugby game sessions have repeatedly been the toughest of our weeks in training and I believe that Glasgow now have many more weapons in their locker with which to hurt the opposition.

So I am very pleased with where our pre-season has taken us in terms of conditioning and improving our skill sets while also delighted with how the new boys like Angus Macdonald, Tim Swinson, Byron McGuigan and Taylor Paris, to name but four, have settled in.

We have made sure the players have benefited from individual skill sessions while also putting an onus on them to work harder as team through various team bonding exercises.

These have included white water canoeing and community activities like the painting of St Rochs' school in Royston.

Discipline has also been focused on as every one of these aspects will play a key part in forming the winning culture I want at Glasgow.

The bottom line is we want to be playing winning rugby in both the PRO12 and the Heineken Cup in a way that will excite the Glasgow support and hopefully see us challenge for silverware in both tournaments.

Now, on Saturday, we will approach the first big test of our preparation with our opening pre-season game at Sale Sharks.

Obviously we have had two training games with Castres during our week in France and on Sunday, at Scotstoun, with Aberdeen.

They were both very valuable but the game at Heywood Road this Saturday afternoon will take things up another level.

We will be without our Scotland summer tour players for the Sale game in order to make sure they have had adequate rest and then re-conditioning time and a few of them will be feature against Exeter a week today.

WE will be captained by Chris Fusaro against Sale. He is someone who everyone looks up to, both on and off the field and an outstanding individual who leads by example.

There are of course more than a few significant selection battles which will be waged for key positions throughout the team. None more so than at my old position of stand-off.

With Duncan Weir rested, both Ruaridh Jackson and Scott Wight will enjoy good game time and it will be a great opportunity for both of them.

But for me the battle for the No.10 shirt is a three-way fight. So I will be monitoring that very closely over both of our pre-season games.

There will be an important role in the pack for Angus Macdonald, the former All Black, who is technically outstanding and in the second row we will be blooding young Nick Campbell alongside Tim Swinson in a new combination at lock.

At loose head Gordy Reid will be starting. Gordy has progressed through the club game and worked for a living and is now grasping his opportunity of full-time rugby with Glasgow.

He is a good scrummager and strong in the contact and he will have an opportunity in our front row at Sale to stake a claim for the season ahead.

So what I am looking for is an improvement on our perfor-mances against Castres and Aberdeen and if we get the win we will be very happy to have beaten a European Cup side.

We know with this being the England international Mark Cueto's testimonial game and both our two Glasgow old boys Richie Gray and Richie Vernon likely to play there will be a wee edge to the game.

We will be ready for that.