GREGOR TOWNSEND is not the most obvious candidate for a place in rugby??s rogue??s gallery, so it was something of a surprise to hear the Glasgow Warriors coach confess that he did manage to collect two yellow cards over the course of his career.

GREGOR TOWNSEND is not the most obvious candidate for a place in rugby??s rogue??s gallery, so it was something of a surprise to hear the Glasgow Warriors coach confess that he did manage to collect two yellow cards over the course of his career. Both were for late tackles; and both, remarkably, were picked up when he was playing against Toulouse.

Or maybe it is not so remarkable. Townsend??s years in France ?? from 1998 to 2005 ?? straddled an era when the team from la Ville Rose stood head and shoulders above their domestic rivals, a status that tended to affect the thinking of their opponents, Townsend included.

??Maybe I got more fired up when I was playing them,?? said Townsend. ??For any player in France, when you played at Toulouse you always knew you were taking on the biggest club in the country and you were just that bit more motivated.

??French rugby has changed a lot since then. With all the money that has gone into clubs like Toulon, Racing Metro and Clermont Auvergne, Toulouse have much more opposition now. But it is still the ultimate scalp.??

Maybe so, but on their three previous trips to Toulouse ?? including the one in January 2009 when they pulled off a sensational victory ?? Glasgow have never travelled with as many reasons to feel confident as they do this weekend. They go with a side bolstered by the return of a host of Scotland internationals, with players who are in form and scoring tries, and with the comfort of having won their two Champions Cup games to dat, against Bath and Montpellier, in impressive style.

Of course, Toulouse also take a 100 per cent European record this season into tomorrow??s clash in the Stade Ernest Wallon. And they, too, have been strengthened, after some decidedly lumpy performances in the Top 14 French league, by some stellar names. Toulouse lost at home to Grenoble last weekend and coach Guy Noves has responded by bringing out the big guns, recalling Gael Fickou, Maxime Medard, Census Johnston, Yoann Maestri, Yannick Nyanga and Imanol Harinordoquy to his starting lineup.

Scary? It gets worse. There was talk of an injury crisis at Toulouse when Toby Flood and Luke McAlister were ruled out of action recently, but a crisis in which you can afford to leave Thierry Dusautoir, Yoann Huget and Florian Fritz on the replacements bench is one that most clubs would be happy to struggle with.

In any case, Townsend is not convinced that much can be read into the fact that Toulouse have won just six of their 12 Top 14 games this season and now sit in seventh place in the table. As far as he is concerned, the four-times winners of the Heineken Cup reveal their true selves when they hit the European stage.

Townsend said: ??They started the season poorly, but then they had a really good run of six or seven wins in a row, including the European games. After the November Tests they rested a few international players, an they only lost to Grenoble with the last kick of the game.

??The European games have really shown the best of Toulouse this year. I thought they were excellent away to Bath. They have such a strong European pedigree and they can go into games lit that and express themselves. Maybe the pressure and emotion in the French league mean that their performances don??t always stack up, but they have certainly played really well in Europe.??

The numbers bear that out, as Toulouse will be chasing their 100th European victory when they host Glasgow tomorrow. However, the Warriors could make history of their own, for they have never previously won three consecutive European games in a single season. Moreover, for many of those Scotland players coming back into the side, the freshest memories of playing for Glasgow arise from their 15-13 victory away to Montpellier in late October.

??That was a very good win,?? Townsend acknowledged. ??There is a feeling of momentum from something like that. But we have to realise that Toulouse is a different game and it will take different qualities to win. Every game has its own story.

??But in many ways, Toulouse are similar to Montpellier. They are like a lot of French teams in that they have a huge pack, bigger than Montpellier??s, and excellent runners in the backline. They have a strong scrum, strong lineout drives and they have a very good defensive record. We know they are going to be hard to break down.

??We have to make sure we limit their opportunities. We have to be there for the whole 80 minutes. One thing that was pleasing in Montpellier was that we really stepped up in the last quarter of the game. We defended well, chased our kicks, and grabbed our opportunities to go ahead.??

It was at this stage last season that Glasgow??s European season went off the rails as they lost both their back-to-back matches against Cardiff Blues. Townsend admitted subsequently that he had made mistakes in the way he reintegrated players coming back from Test duties, so the focus over the past couple of weeks has been on making that transition as seamless as possible.

Even so, the Warriors are still distant second favourites to come away from Toulouse with a win. What they may have to settle for is a manner of defeat that still gives them hope they can turn the tables at Scotstoun next weekend, effectively sharing the points and increasing the likelihood that both sides will go through to the knockout stages.

Teams.

Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg; S Maitland, A Dunbar, P Horne, T Seymour; F Russell, H Pyrgos; R Grant, P MacArthur, J Welsh, L Nakarawa, J Gray, R Harley, C Fusaro, J Strauss (captain). Subs: F Brown, G Reid, R de Klerk, T Swinson, R Wilson, N Matawalu, D Weir, R Vernon.

Toulouse: C Poitrenaud; V Clerc, Y David, G Fickou, M Médard; J-M Doussain, S Bézy; V Kakovin, C Flynn, C Johnston, J Tekori, Y Maestri, Y Nyanga (captain), I Harinordoquy, L Picamoles. Subs: J Marchand, K Pulu, N Tialata, T Dusautoir, E Maka, J Vermaak, F Fritz, Y Huget.