With more room to manoeuvre in his team’s Pro14 campaign than his Edinburgh counterpart, Dave Rennie has been able to deploy his resources for tonight’s match against the Cheetahs with a view to next weekend’s Champions Cup quarter-finals.

There is no lack of respect for the South Africans, nor is there any question of taking major risks, but with a play-off place almost certainly secured, Rennie can be relatively relaxed about his team’s Pro14 prospects, while preparing to take on English champions Saracens in what will be their’ third, last and decisive encounter in this season’s Champions Cup.

Glasgow have been play-off regulars since their introduction a decade ago, whereas their on-going failure to win a Champions Cup knockout match surely makes that a priority and, as much as coaches invariably seek to maintain focus on the immediate task in hand, Rennie admitted that with co-captain Callum Gibbins returning to the team after a lengthy lay-off, squad management had been a consideration.

“It’s a little bit about combinations and we’ve looked at some of our Scottish boys who have a lot of footie while players like Zander (Fagerson) hasn’t played much at all,” he said. “Fraser (Brown) has come off the bench. It is nice to have these boys in. We haven’t really talked about Saracens. They are in the back of our mind and our planning, but we are really happy with the side we have on the park tomorrow.”

A string of leading players who suffered injuries before or during the Six Nations Championship look to be in line to return for that visit to Saracens, while others who were regulars for the international team, are being given a chance to freshen up this weekend.

“Stuart Hogg is not quite right,but we are fairly confident he will be available next week,” Rennie reported. “Tommy (Seymour) has a strong chance… we are confident George Horne will be available next week too. He is very close this week, but Nick Frisby has been going well and Niko (Matawalu) will cover nine. We are resting Sam Johnson after a fairly busy campaign, Jonny Gray and Ali Price the same.”

He was less optimistic about Nick Grigg, Johnson’s midfield partner at Twickenham last week, who went off with an ankle injury, saying: “It doesn’t look that flash to be honest, so he’s certainly going to be out for the next few weeks we think. We’ll have a bit more clarity by Tuesday, but he’s unlikely for next week. I think it’s syndesmosis, so it’s disappointing. He’s defended really well at international level and I’ve been really excited for him, so it’s a frustrating injury.”

Rennie meanwhile indicated that Pete Horne is getting another chance to stake his place as principal play-maker having once again been shunted around by Scotland, this time from centre, to bench, to stand off, to centre, then out of the squad.

“It is a competitive spot,” he observed. “We are really pleased at the way Peter has played at ten for us. Adam (Hastings) has had a really good Six Nations and we were originally going to rest him this weekend. Peter had last week off and was ready to go, but Adam was really keen to rip straight into things, so we have thrown him onto the bench.”