Hawick's Stuart Hogg - a member of Glasgow's elite development group - has been called up from Scotland's U20 squad and starts at full-back for the Warriors. Bernardo Stortoni drops to the Glasgow bench.
Stuart is joined in the 23-man squad by two other elite development squad members - Finlay Gillies (Currie) and Nick Campbell (Glasgow Hawks) - who are among the Glasgow substitutes.
Ayr prop Gordon Reid also takes a place on the bench for the Warriors. It promises to be a busy weekend for Gordon who will also play for Ayr in Saturday's all-important clash against Doncaster in the British and Irish Cup (ko 3.00pm).
Head coach Sean Lineen said: “It’s been a very tough week both mentally and physically but we need to really nail things tomorrow night against the Dragons who will be bringing up a strong side.”
Excited about the opportunity to see Stuart Hogg in action for Glasgow, Sean continued: “I’ve been really impressed with Stuart. He is good enough. We wouldn’t put him in unless we thought he was good enough and we’ve been looking at him for a while now.
“Bernie (Stortoni) still has a crucial role, and will still play games for us, but if we are looking to the future then we have here a young lad who has a lot to offer.”
James Eddie makes his return from a six month lay-off following a successful 70 minute outing for draft-club Currie last weekend.
“James has been out for a long time,” Sean continued, “I really feel for the lad. He played well for Currie last weekend so it’s time to give him a run.
“I’m a big fan of his. He’s a good ball carrier and is the heart and soul of Glasgow. He really wants to do well and I know he will give us everything.
“This is always a difficult time. If you go back over the last four seasons, then you will see that we’ve only won one game in February and that was 9-6 against the Ospreys.
“It’s not easy but these are not excuses, they are reasons. It was unacceptable what happened against Connacht and the players know that.
“We’ve just got to make sure we make good decisions and the players back themselves to show the support that is there on Friday night what it means to play for the Warriors.”
15 Stuart Hogg
14 Hefin O'Hare
13 Peter Murchie
12 Peter Horne
11 DTH van der Merwe
10 Duncan Weir
9 Colin Gregor CAPTAIN
1 Ryan Grant
2 Fergus Thomson
3 Ed Kalman
4 Aly Muldowney
5 Tom Ryder
6 James Eddie
7 Calum Forrester
8 Ryan Wilson
Substitutes
16 Finlay Gillies
17 Kevin Tkachuk
18 Gordon Reid (Ayr)
19 Nick Campbell
20 Chris Fusaro
21 Federico Aramburu
22 Bernardo Stortoni
23 Henry Pyrgos
Unavailable for selection: John Barclay (Scotland), Johnnie Beattie (Scotland), Chris Cusiter (knee), Rob Dewey (shoulder), Max Evans (Scotland), James Fleming (knee), Richie Gray (Scotland), Dougie Hall (shoulder), Robert Harley (hip), Ruaridh Jackson (Scotland), Alastair Kellock (Scotland), Moray Low (Scotland), Pat MacArthur (ankle), Graeme Morrison (knee), Richie Vernon (Scotland), Jon Welsh (ribs).