DAN Carter will be absent from a Racing 92 team who have already won Pool 3, and Glasgow’s hopes of qualifying for the last eight of the Champions Cup were effectively ended by Northampton at the start of the week. Nonetheless, there is still a fair chance that the Warriors’ match against the French club at Rugby Park today will be an explosive, entertaining encounter.
For one thing, as Glasgow winger Tommy Seymour pointed out, the omission of Carter and other star names from the visitors’ line-up hardly means that Racing are turning out a bunch of no-hopers. What is more, the home team are desperate to put in a consistent 80-minute performance after struggling for form throughout the season, and believe there would be no better time to get it than the last European match before they return to PRO12 action.
“We take this as an opportunity to put in a good performance now,” said Seymour, who is back in the Warriors team after spending several weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury. “We’ve had good performances in large sections [of matches].
“From a spectator point of view, I thought we should maybe have won that game [against Northampton] a little bit more comfortably. This weekend is about going out and getting the confidence and the morale boost we can use to move past this and going back into the league.
“Can you name the bad ones?,” the Scotland winger continued when asked if he thought the players selected by Racing were in any way substandard. “With Racing’s depth in their European squad you’re talking about individuals who would go to other clubs and be the stars. Racing have given themselves this luxury by the way they’ve played in the group.
“There are other ways of looking at it. The individuals coming in have class and quality, and they might have a point to prove for getting starting spots in the quarter-finals and the league.
“You sometimes almost fear the individual who hasn’t been playing more than the one who has, because he has a lot more to prove. We’ll be looking at it from that angle.
“It’s great to play against the best in the world, and Dan Carter is that. But when you have a guy like that on the other side there’s maybe a sigh of relief [that he’s not playing] because of what he can do with a ball. But there are other 10s who are good too.
“It’s probably more of a shame for the fans - people who want to come here and have probably bought tickets to go and watch Dan Carter. But as a group of players we’re mindful of just getting on and playing the Racing team that is there. We will play the people who are on the park.”
Ryan Wilson, who was cleared this week of a charge of grabbing an opponent’s testicles, has been left out of the Glasgow side - partly because the forward’s week had been disrupted by the need to go to London to attend a disciplinary hearing, and partly because of a shoulder injury that would have put his place in doubt anyway.
“The case was dismissed pretty quickly,” said Gregor Townsend, the Warriors’ head coach. “I was disappointed that it went to a hearing, especially the nature of the accusation and the embarrassment for someone like Ryan.
“Case dismissed. It disrupted our week, which was not great.
“People have to be pretty sure if they are making those citings in the future for something as serious as this. I’m sure that the disciplinary department will say ‘Oh well, we were justified in our actions, but then it goes to a hearing and it gets thrown out’, but some of these are strong accusations and the potential outcome of that was a long ban.”
James Eddie comes in at blindside in place of Wilson, while there is also a place in the back row for Leone Nakarawa, who is named at No 8 instead of his usual place in the second row. 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.
While Seymour returns in place of Sean Lamont, there is also a change on the other wing, where Taqele Naiyaravoro is preferred to Lee Jones. The rest of the back line is the same as the one that began against Northampton six days ago, while Duncan Weir will make his 100th appearance for the Warriors if he comes off the bench.
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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