Glasgow Warriors: Jonny Gray & Henry Pyrgos to be co-captains this season

Jonny Gray and Henry Pyrgos are part of a strong leadership group at the club

Scotland lock Jonny Gray and scrum-half Henry Pyrgos have been named co-captains of Glasgow Warriors for the forthcoming season.

Gray, 22, took over from former captain Al Kellock at the start of last season and led them to the Pro 12 play-offs.

Pyrgos, 27, missed four months of last season following wrist surgery after the World Cup, but returned in time to play on Scotland's tour of Japan.

He led his country - for a third time - in the second Test in Toyko.

Glasgow head coach Gregor Townsend said: "We were really impressed with Jonny's development as team captain last season and we believe having co-captains will make us even stronger this year.

"It's great that we have a number of leaders throughout our squad and both captains will have a lot of support.

"The complimentary strengths of Jonny and Henry should enable us to get closer to reaching our potential."

'We get on really well'

Gray said it was "a massive honour" to continue to lead the club, in tandem with Pyrgos.

"It's great to have Henry there with his experience and his knowledge of the game. He's captained Scotland and is a great guy, so it's an honour to share the captaincy with him."

Pyrgos, who is also likely to be on Scotland duty for the autumn Tests and Six Nations, added: "It's going to be slightly different to what I've done before, but we get on really well.

"There are a lot of other senior guys in the squad who drive standards and lead by example."

Glasgow play two pre-season warm-up matches - away to Harlequins on 20 August and Gloucester on 26 August - before opening their Pro 12 campaign away to defending champions Connacht, who beat the Warriors in last season's semi-finals, on Saturday, 3 September.