GREGOR Townsend has called for a strong performance from referee Marius Mitrea today, when Glasgow Warriors visit one of the most intimidating grounds in the PRO12 for their play-off semi-final against Connacht. The Sportsground in Galway will be packed this afternoon as the Irish province try to knock out the defending champions, and Townsend believes the match official as well as his own players will have to keep a cool head amidst the mayhem.

“The need for a strong ref is really important,” the Warriors head coach said yesterdy after naming his team for the game. “The Sportsground is a different and tough environment for players and refs at the best of times, so for a semi-final it will be even wilder than usual. It’s going to be noisy, and different to what you get at bigger stadiums.

“It’s a very important game involving two teams that are going to be very aggressive. So because of that the ref needs to be strong, as it’s the most important game of the season for both teams.

“Marius Mitrea will be doing international rugby in the next few weeks. I expect him to perform well, just like I’m expecting the players to perform well and to be strong.

“The Sportsground is a different atmosphere and noisier than it has been in the past, because they have more people at the game now. Us coaches are in the middle of all the supporters and it’s an incredibly passionate atmosphere.

“The positive thing for us is that we’ve experienced it and know we have to keep our emotions under control. It’s good we had that experience from a couple of weeks ago” - a 14-7 defeat by Connacht in the last game of the regular league season - “and we’ll have to be at our best to win.”

Henry Pyrgos returns at scrum-half after missing the last match through injury. Ali Price deputised for the Scotland international then, but this time misses out altogether, with Grayson Hart holding on to his place on the bench.

There are five changes in all from the Warriors team that lost that game - three in the backs and two in the pack. Mark Bennett comes in at centre for the injured Alex Dunbar, Sean Lamont replaces Lee Jones on the left wing, Zander Fagerson is at tighthead prop instead of the suspended Sila Puafisi, and specialist openside Simone Favaro is preferred to Rob Harley in the back row.

“It has been a huge boost to have someone of Henry’s talent and experience back available for such an important game,” Townsend added. “He’s trained fully for the last ten days, so he’s feeling healthy and ready to go. As for the other changes I’ve made, I felt we have the right blend in the back row with Simone Favaro coming in at openside and Ryan Wilson on the other flank in place of Rob Harley, who’s unlucky to miss out with Josh Strauss at No 8.”

Glasgow Warriors (v Connacht, tomorrow, 6.30pm): S Hogg; T Seymour, M Bennett, P Horne, S Lamont ; F Russell, H Pyrgos; G Reid, F Brown, Z Fagerson, J Gray, L Nakarawa, R Wilson, S Favaro, J Strauss. Substitutes: P MacArthur, R Grant, D Rae, T Swinson, A Ashe, G Hart, D Weir, T Naiyaravoro.