Donnie Macfadyen will reach a momentous milestone in his rugby career when he plays for Glasgow in the Celtic League match against Edinburgh at Hughenden on Saturday [27 December]. It will be his hundredth game for Glasgow.

Macfadyen joins a small elite group. Only four players have previously notched a century in appearances for Glasgow in the team's present format. Three of them are in the current squad - Jon Petrie and the Bulloch brothers. Alan Bulloch has had 118 games for Glasgow, Petrie 116, and Gordon Bulloch 112.

The record, though, is 121 appearances, held by Tommy Hayes, the stand-off who departed the Glasgow ranks at the end of last season.

Macfadyen admitted to being "excited" about joining such a group. "It has sneaked up on me," he added. No nervous nineties for him!

This is his fifth season with Glasgow. He joined the squad as a youth of 19 back in the summer of 1999, and his debut was across the Atlantic in Canada, when Glasgow Caledonians, as they were then, competed with Edinburgh Reivers in a four-team tournament organised by the Ontario Rugby Union in Toronto. He played in two of the three matches, scoring a try in each against Ontario and Edinburgh.

He was young enough then that he had still a year of under-21 international rugby left in him in that first Glasgow season. He duly played in eight of Scotland's ten under-21 matches in the next year, captaining his country in seven of them, including all four in the SANZAR tournament in New Zealand in June and July 2000. Five of his current Glasgow colleagues - Andrew Hall, Andrew Henderson, Euan Murray, Jon Steel, and Andrew Wilson - were with Macfadyen in that tournament, the precursor to the International Rugby Board's Under-21 World Cup.

Last year, as a member of Scotland's touring squad, Macfadyen returned to the country where he made his Glasgow debut, and there he won his first cap, as a replacement against Canada in Vancouver. The following week he had his first international start, playing in the 65-23 victory against the United States in San Francisco. Those, however, have been his only international appearances so far.

He did wonder if he might have been needed as Scotland's replacement open-side flanker when injury ruled Andrew Mower out of the World Cup squad in Australia in October. "I didn't sleep too well that night, hoping for the phone call," he admitted. "But if I had gone to Australia I would have missed my sister's wedding," he added, noting that that rugby disappointment had had its compensation. Cammy Mather, Glasgow's captain, was called out to Australia instead.

Glasgow have won their past two matches, beating Montpellier in both legs of the Parker Pen Challenge Cup first round. For Saturday's Celtic League match, with the return of Lee Harrison and Graeme Morrison, two changes in personnel have been made from the team who started in the 38-13 victory against the French club in the Hughenden match 11 days ago.

Harrison, who played as a replacement in both games against Montpellier, takes over at tight head from Andrew Kelly. Morrison, who missed both Montpellier matches because of flu, returns at outside centre, with Gareth Maclure switching to the right wing in place of Rory Kerr.

Saturday's match will kick off at 2.00pm.

Glasgow's team:

15 Stuart Moffat

14 Gareth Maclure

13 Graeme Morrison

12 Andrew Henderson

11 Sean Lamont

10 Dan Parks

9 Graeme Beveridge

1 Euan Murray

2 Gordon Bulloch

3 Lee Harrison

4 Andrew Hall

5 Nathan Ross

6 Cameron Mather (captain)

8 Jon Petrie

7 Donnie Macfadyen

Replacements:

16 Scott Lawson

17 Andrew Kelly

18 Joe Beardshaw

19 Roland Reid

20 Sam Pinder

21 Calvin Howarth

22 Rory Kerr