GLASGOW scrum-half George Horne aims to kick off the second part of the season on a high when the Warriors take on Montpellier in the Challenge Cup tomorrow night.
The Scotland cap spent four months looking on from the sidelines because of a foot injury as his team struggled to find consistency in the PRO14. But, having made his return to action in last weekend’s home win over Benetton, Horne is determined to make up for lost time and play his part in a far better run of form both in Europe and then the Rainbow Cup.
“Europe is always exciting to play in because you can get the chance to test yourselves against different teams,” he said. “Montpellier are a massive club, so it will be fun first of all.
“And then we have the Rainbow Cup coming up when we will play some of the South African teams we haven’t played before. So it will be a good challenge.”
With Ali Price and Jamie Dobie returning from international duty this week, there is going to be plenty of competition for the Warriors No 9 jersey in the coming weeks. But Horne is the man in possession and hopes to build on his comeback performance against Benetton.
“It has definitely been a frustrating few months being out injured and having to sit on the sidelines watching the action,” he continued. “So I was buzzing to be back out there. And I was even more excited to get on the scoresheet and get a good win.”
"There is a lot of competition for scrum-half and we will all be pushing each other and hopefully put our hands up to start. Getting the internationals back for the next few games will be a big boost. All the boys played well for Scotland and adding 11 internationals to any team is always going to be great.”
The Warriors will have a home quarter-final against Benetton or Agen next weekend if they win tomorrow night, but Horne is well aware of how tough a challenge Montpellier will be. “We have done a wee bit of research on Montpellier. They have a big physical pack and will try and bully us up front. They have Cobus Reinach at scrum-half – who is a World Cup winner with South Africa and a great player.
“And they have a lot of X factor players and big names throughout the team, so we’ll have to be at our best to beat them.
“I like to move big packs around so we have to keep the tempo high, go through multi-phase, tire them out and hopefully we will get a result off the back of it.”
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