The power of positive thinking may have dominated the Scottish rugby environment in which Finn Russell has emerged as a leading light, but as he goes into his last few weeks as a Glasgow Warrior, his current head coach has reached for stick rather than carrot to try to get a message across to the stand-off and his colleagues.

Dave Rennie expressed no doubts about the player’s motivation as the Warriors prepare for what has become an extremely important PRO14 
meeting with Connacht tonight as they try to secure top spot in Conference A and a home semi-final in their last Scotstoun appearance of the league campaign.

Two dangerous trips remain thereafter, so this is not, then, the time to be taking risks, so it is telling that Rennie is putting his faith in the play-making ability of Peter Horne, rather than that of France-bound Russell.

“We are going into the business end of the season and I want them to understand that regardless of reputation we are just going to play guys we think will do the job for us,” were his first words of explanation.
It is by no means the first time a coach has, in pivotal positions, had to choose between players considered to be extremely gifted and those in whom they have more faith to deliver the control they require and it is not the first time this season that Rennie has opted for Horne to start a match, while hoping that Russell can come on and make an impact later in proceedings as the match becomes less structured.

“Horney is a pretty accomplished ten as well and he gets a crack this week. Hopefully Finn comes off the bench this week and plays well,” Rennie went on.

“Finn is a special player. He is first to admit he was a bit short of expectations last week and he is determined to show that was a one-off when he gets the opportunity on Friday night. He is pretty clear of expectations, he is desperate to leave this club with another title and leading the way. 

“Ultimately you are judged by your performance and judged by your preparation. If guys don’t perform as expected you have two options, you give them another crack, or you apply pressure by showing confidence in others. 

“We have lots of competition for places here and Finn has had a pretty good run of it with Scotland starting every game, so we are keen to give Horney a start. I have a lot of confidence in him [Horne]. His attention to detail is excellent. He is very professional in his preparation. I just think he needs more time in the seat. There is every chance he will play a lot of footy next season for us at ten along with Adam Hastings who has been really good for us as well.”

That the requirements of the Warriors management are rather different to those of the national team’s coaches seemed reinforced yesterday by the decision to overhaul the midfield, yet leave another of those who started every Six Nations match, Huw Jones, out of the match 23 for a second successive week and Rennie again made it clear that he was dealing with the issues coaches prefer, in choosing between quality players. 

“He’s not injured,” he said of Jones. “I mentioned last week that we have really good depth in midfield. Sam Johnson has probably been our best midfielder throughout the year and you have to find a place for him going into the business part of the season, which leaves four other international midfielders to fill two of those spots and with Peter Horne able to play ten and twelve that leaves just one other. 

“Alex Dunbar has recovered from injury, he’s been available the last couple of weeks. He’s trained really well and we looked closely at putting him in last week but Nick Grigg’s form has been excellent. So, yeah, Nick’s unlucky that he is out of the mix this week but Alex is good to go and it’s tough for Huw.”

In similar vein, former Scotland captain Henry Pyrgos gets just his fifth start of the season after Ali Price, who has effectively taken his place in the national squad, repeated the blunder he made in the Six Nations opener on his return to south Wales last weekend, by throwing a pass which was intercepted to concede an important try.

“It’s been a challenging period for Henry,” Rennie acknowledged. 

“Obviously, we’ve used George Horne a lot. Ali is ahead of him in the pecking order in the Scotland scene but we’re really impressed by Henry in the last three to four weeks. He’s trained really well, put his disappointment of the Scottish campaign behind him and been working really hard. 

“He’s very experienced, he’s led well with this young group during the Six Nations. I thought he was excellent against Zebre a couple of weeks ago. We contemplated giving him a start against Scarlets based on how well he’s been going. 

“We also acknowledged that Ali had come off the bench, hadn’t had an enormous amount of footie but he had contributed really well for Scotland hence the reason he got the start.  

“We are still trying to create competition for places there, with George away at the Commonwealth Games, Henry gets a decent crack and deserves his place on form.”