Seven months of misery could be about to end for one of Scotland's many promising young flankers. Ross Rennie, who won his debut cap against Ireland last season but then damaged a knee, is expecting to get a run out in the Magners League tonight when Edinburgh play Connacht, the team he was facing when he picked up the injury in March.

“It has been frustrating,” he said yesterday as the team prepared to fly to the west of Ireland. “Nobody at the time thought it was that serious, I had expected to be out for only a few weeks, then to be back in the summer, but it is only now that it is fully right. I just can't wait to get out there again.”

Rennie is fully aware that while he has been away, Alan MacDonald, his club rival for the openside berth, has taken full advantage with a series of storming performances. In fact, Rennie was surprised not to see his colleague in the Scotland training squad that heads to Spain on Sunday, and he knows that he faces a formidable challenge if he is to win back a regular place in the starting XV. It is not a position that he can - or does - begrudge because he cemented his own place when the boot was on the other foot and MacDonald was injured last season.

His return, however, and Matt Mustchin completing his internal suspension after giving away a stupid yellow card a fortnight ago, will force Andy Robinson, the Edinburgh coach, to shuffle his squad for tonight's match in Galway, though after last week's first away win of the season he understandably sticks to the same starting XV.

Robinson has a couple players with niggles, so is travelling with four extra replacements and will not confirm the final line-up of replacements until just before kick-off. While he sees this as a chance for the side to get their season back on track after some poor early results, he is being careful not to let the players think of it as an easy win. Remember this is a side that has already beaten Leinster, who have won twice against Edinburgh, once scoring more than 50 points.

Since losing to their Irish rivals last month, however, Leinster have really hit top form, winning comfortably at Murrayfield in the Heineken Cup before destroying London Wasps last weekend, and they travel to face Glasgow full of confidence, aiming to take another step towards retaining their Magners League crown. There is no Brian O'Driscoll in their side, after he failed a fitness test on his knee, but all the rest of the big names are there, though Girvan Dempsey, the Ireland full back, is also facing a late call on his availability after going down with flu this week.

Glasgow, like Edinburgh, have stuck with almost the side that performed with a lot of spirit last week - before coughing up enough soft scores to let Toulouse win - the only change being the reinstatement of Kelly Brown at flanker.

“Getting dropped hurt and made me think about a lot of things,” Brown said. “I decided the only way back was to work even harder and use the hurt like a fuel to push me on to bigger and better things.”

Apart from anything else, the timing could hardly have been worse, with the Scotland squad being picked two days after that game, so Brown had all-but resigned himself to being dropped by the international management as well, only to be pleasantly surprised on Tuesday when the group was announced.

“It was great to be kept in,” he said. “Then it was great to be back in the Glasgow team - it was a much better start to this week than last. I hope I can use the fuel of being dropped to spur me on even more. It is a feeling that nobody likes and I am determined to make sure it does not happen again, I was down and I was hurting - that is something I don't want to experience again.”

The key for Glasgow is being able to find the same intensity that they showed last week - there would be no excuse for letting themselves drop a level against the league champions - while cutting out the mistakes that hand scores to their opponents.

Glasgow: B Stortoni; L Fa'atau, M Evans, G Morrison, T Evans; D Parks, M McMillan; K Tkachuk, E Milligan, E Kalman, D Turner, A Kellock (capt), K Brown, J Barclay, J Beattie. Replacements from: P McArthur, M Low, T Barker, R Vernon, C Gregor, A Henderson, H O'Hare.

Leinster: G Dempsey; S Horgan, L Fitzgerald, F Contepomi, R Kearney; J Sexton, C Whitaker (capt); C Healy, J Fogarty, S Wright, D Toner, M O'Kelly, R Elsom, S Jennings, J Heaslip. Replacements from: B Blaney, CJ van der Linde, T Hogan, S Keogh, S O'Brien, C Keane, G Brown, S Keogh.

Referee: G Morris (Wales).

Connacht: F Carr; A Wynne, G Duffy, M Deane, J Hearty; I Keatley, F Murphy; J Lyne, S Cronin,R Morris; M Swift, A Farley; J Muldoon (capt), J O'Connor, C Rigney. Replacements: A Flavin, R Loughney, A Browne, D Gannon, K Campbell, A Dunne, T Nathan.

Edinburgh: C Paterson; M Robertson, B Cairns, N De Luca, S Webster; P Godman, M Blair (capt); A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, C Hamilton, J Hamilton, S Newlands, A MacDonald, A Hogg. Replacements from: A Kelly, G Kerr, K Traynor, M Mustchin, B Gissing, S Cross, R Rennie, G Laidlaw, D Blair, H Southwell, J Houston.

Referee: J Jones (Wales).

IRB still to rule on player release

Two days before Scotland are due to travel for warm-weather training in La Manga to prepare for the autumn internationals, they still do not know what is happening to their Welsh-based players (Lewis Stuart writes).

The International Rugby Board (IRB) yesterday refused to intervene in the dispute between the Welsh clubs and their union, but the Scottish complaint is separate and has yet to be resolved.

Scotland are caught in a quarrel that has nothing to do with them. The Welsh sides have refused to release players because of a dispute with their union over money and because it would look odd if they released players to a rival country but not to their own.

Yesterday the IRB ruled that Welsh dispute was an internal matter and refused to intervene, but Scotland have also complained about being refused access and so far there has been no verdict.

In practical terms, Scotland can afford to wait - with Scott MacLeod suspended, Nikki Walker is the only player affected. While missing the session will affect him personally, making it harder for him to win caps next month, Frank Hadden, the Scotland coach, has plenty of alternatives.