They may have already killed off Glasgow Warriors’ European aspirations, but Montpellier may be set to play a major role in helping the Scotstoun-based club to work out how they become more competitive at the highest level moving forward.

With Finn Russell at the helm, the Warriors have been highly effective in domestic competition, but less so on the European stage and it is with an eye to the longer term future that Dave Rennie, Glasgow’s head coach, has dropped the Scotland stand off to the bench for tonight’s match in favour of his play-making partner Peter Horne.

Horne initially caught the eye a decade ago as a full-back who was part of a Bell Baxter High team that made history in interrupting the private school hegemony in the Scottish Schools Cup and has mainly be fielded at centre in his time at Glasgow, during which he has made more appearances then any member of tonight’s starting XV other than skipper Ryan Wilson. However, Rennie believes he has identified a capacity within the 28-year-old to run the show and this represents the ideal to try his theory out.

“We were keen to give him a crack at 10 in a really big game. We anticipate that Montpellier will probably have their best side on the field because it’s a top tier, huge game for them, so it’ll be a real pressure cooker against one of the best sides in Europe and a chance for us to see Pete running the ship in that sort of game and that’s probably looking ahead, not just for the rest of this year, but beyond Finn departing,” he said.

“I’ve mentioned a number of times that I’m a big fan of the way Pete plays. He’s got a really good skill-set, he’s a real student of the game and he’s got an ability to challenge and demand of others, so it will be a really good match-up between him and Aaaron Cruden. We definitely see him as a strong candidate for next year. Obviously, Adam Hastings has gone well for us, we’ve got Brandon Thomson in behind them too, so whether we look to bring another 10 in as well we’re not sure at this stage, but it’s a great opportunity for Pete to make a bit of a statement in what we call a pressure cooker situation.”

Russell’s selection on the bench apart, it looks close to the strongest team Rennie could have put out in a week that must have seen him torn between seeking to maintain self-respect for his team, but also ensuring that they are as ready as possible for what now become much more meaningful matches against Edinburgh over the ensuing two weekends.

“Obviously we’re trying to build some continuity and we’ve got a handful of injuries, so we’re limited in options in some positions anyway, even if we did want to rest a couple of guys, (but) we need to show what we’ve learned and try to take that momentum into the 1872 fixtures,” he observed.

Two others who will certainly come into the equation for those derbies are Huw Jones, the Scotland centre who had a troublesome wrist problem examined this week and Callum Gibbins, their Kiwi back-row import who has been highly influential, but pulled out of last week’s match on the day of the game because of an achilles problem.

“Huw had to travel to Leeds on Monday to assess a wrist injury,” Rennie revealed.

“If he had to have cortisone in that then he was going to be out. We decided just to make a call so we could start preparing on Monday when he wasn’t back until Tuesday. . We just wanted to get it checked out. It seems that it is manageable for the rest of the season although he may require surgery in the off-season.

“So he’s potentially back in the mix and Callum had an issue with his Achilles but he’s a lot better and improving every day. We just didn’t want to risk it this week but we’re pretty confident he’ll be available next week.”