The Warriors played well but they were out-muscled up front by a powerful Saracens set-piece that forced two penalty tries and drove over for another.
Shade Munro, the assistant coach, explained in The Times: "The front row changes were partly a response to last week's performance in the set-piece against Saracens, but again because we need Kevin Tkachuk to play, since Euan Murray could be away with the national team.
"GRAN Parma are also extremely strong up front. They're a big scrummaging side who like to drive it and then pick and go, but unlike Saracens, they also like to go wide, using lots of wee chips."
One player who feels that he has amends to make after last week is Euan Murray, the Warriors tighthead. "It was a learning experience," he said in The Scotsman. "What we thought was one of our strengths turned out to be one of our weaknesses.
"They had two props roughly eight years older than me and Justin. In front- row terms that was a huge gulf in experience. Cobus Visagie is considered one the best tightheads, if not the best, in the world, while Kevin Yates has played for England and in the Super 12.
"You won't get many better combinations than those two. But we will learn from that, be stronger for it, and now we've got an early chance to get things back on track."
After overcoming a series of injury nightmares, Euan this week supplanted Bruce Douglas in the Scotland squad to move closer to a repeat of his first cap appearance, against Romania last year and so a good display in front of Scotland coach Frank Hadden tonight could be crucial.
He added: "I would be delighted to get selected for Scotland again. It would be a reward for my refusal to give up the fight. Of course I am not the coach and it's his decision, but I can influence him by playing well for Glasgow."
There are other changes to the Glasgow pack as John Beattie drops out. With injuries to Simon Taylor and Ally Hogg, John could be involved in next month's international matches, but the Warriors staff confirmed that the decision to rest the No8 was a club one and not an instruction from national coach Frank Hadden.
"We could have played John if we wanted to," explained Shade in The Scotsman, "but we felt that it was likely that he would be involved with Scotland in coming weeks and so we had to get other players up to speed.
"If Allister Hogg is fit enough I'm sure he will play for Scotland, but there are not a lot of No8s around right now and the Romania game might be a good opportunity to see John play at international level for the first time. I would stress that that is merely my opinion, and not an insight into what Frank is planning.
"But with the Test boys being rested next weekend, we felt it was important that Jon Petrie got back in and that Stevie Swindall was back on the bench with a chance of playing. Jon has been injured lately and Stevie left out, but they are both very important players to us, and will be in the next few weeks, so the selection is about being fair to them and the Glasgow team as a whole."