I HAVE some serious decisions to make before naming my team for the showdown against Scarlets in Wales on Saturday.

Following the disappointment of defeat against European champions and Magners League leaders Munster, I have no choice but to look at personnel changes.

One of those will be Ruaridh Jackson will replace Dan Parks at stand-off for the last five matches of the season.

Dan, by his very high standards, had a disappointing game against Munster and the four kicks he missed hit us.

When you don't turn pressure into points in pro rugby, it comes back to bite you - and that has meant Dan will be on the bench.

However, it says it all about Dan that when I made the call, the first thing he did was congratulate Ruaridh.

Dan is a consummate professional and top points scorer in Magners League history. He will be back.

For Scarlets, we will also be boosted by the return of John Barclay at open-side, and that will be a big plus.

We did not compete at the breakdown and were outmuscled - and that cannot be allowed to happen again.

In the backline, we will also welcome back Graeme Morrison and Thom Evans, both of whom will increase our firepower.

Unfortunately, Bernie Stortoni is out with concussion and Colin Gregor will replace him at full-back.

Bernie has played 43 consecutive games for us since he signed at the beginning of last season, and he will be a miss, but I have confidence in Colin's ability. However, I need a response to the Munster defeat from numbers one to 15, and that will not be easy against the Scarlets.

Defensively, we have worked hard this week because two of Munster's tries were a joke. In fact, their fourth was from a line-out drive, and I would have put money on a club pack stopping that one.

Our forwards know there can be no repeat.

In the first fixture with the Scarlets at Firhill, we won 34-20, Thom Evans bagging two tries and providing a superb overall performance. We will need more of the same from him.

Against Munster, Max Evans was our stand-out performer by some distance and, with Graeme Morrison back to partner him at centre, we have a combination that will be very important.

It is maybe hard not to start letting our minds wander towards next season, and the re-building work we are doing as we look to strengthen but, for me, it is vital we finish the campaign as strongly as we can.

Of my three seasons in charge at Warriors, this has definitely been the most frustrating. The highs have been outstanding but the lows gut-wrenching.

Overall, we are still going forward, and Warriors, as a team, is definitely growing in the city.

We had 3651 at Firhill last week and that was double what we had for the same fixture last season. It was almost 1,600 more than Edinburgh got for their game with Connacht in the capital.

So, our fans are responding and our support base is growing - but we need to start repaying them with our performances on the park.