DAN Carter, World Rugby’s player of the year in 2015, has been left out of the Racing 92 team to play Glasgow Warriors at Rugby Park tomorrow in the final Champions Cup pool match. Racing qualified as Pool 3 winners last week after hammering the Scarlets, so have the luxury of resting their best players.
Tommy Seymour is back in the Warriors line-up after recovering from a hamstring injury, but there is no place for Ryan Wilson, who was cleared this week of a charge of grabbing an opponent’s testicles. James Eddie comes in at blindside in place of Wilson, who has apparently only been omitted because his training was disrupted by the need to attend the disciplinary hearing in London.
Also in the back row, Leone Nakarawa is named at No 8 instead of his usual place in the second row - where Greg Peterson partners captain Jonny Gray. In the front row, Alex Allan comes in for Gordon Reid at loosehead prop, Shalva Mamukashvili takes over from Pat MacArthur at hooker, and Sila Puafisi retains his place at tighthead.
Glasgow have an extremely slight chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals as one of the three best runners-up from the five pools, but would have to beat Racing with a bonus point and hope for an improbable combination of results elsewhere. Gregor Townsend, their head coach, accepted that their defeat in Northampton last week - the match from which Wilson’s disciplinary citation arose - had ended their hopes of going through to the last eight.
Glasgow Warriors (v Racing 92 at Rugby Park, tomorrow, 5.30pm): S Hogg; T Naiyaravoro, A Dunbar, S Johnson, T Seymour; F Russell, A Price; A Allan, S Mamukashvili, S Puafisi, G Peterson, J Gray, J Eddie, S Favaro, L Nakarawa. Substitutes: J Malcolm, J Yanuyanutawa, Z Fagerson, S Cummings, C Fusaro, G Hart, D Weir, L Jones.
Racing 92: B Dulin; L Dupichot, H Chavancy, A Dumoulin, M Andreu; R Tales, M Machenaud; J Brugnaut, C Chat, L Ducalcon, L Charteris, F van der Merwe, W Lauret, B Le Roux, C Masoe. Substitutes: V Lacombe, D Khinchagishvili, C Gomes Sa, T Dubarry, J Kruger, X Chauveau, B Dambielle, E Dussartre.
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