PETER HORNE hopes to tick another ambition off his bucket list when Glasgow Warriors travel to Racing Metro later this month. Fresh from his man-of-the-match performance against Ospreys, the centre says he is anxious to test himself against the best back on the planet, Dan Carter.

Horne helped the Warriors snatch a bonus-point Pro12 triumph over the Welsh side and turned his attention to his side's European Champions Cup opener against Racing Metro in Paris – when the world's best player is likely to make his debut for the French aces.

Carter crosses the Channel today, fresh from his superb display in the World Cup final win over Australia at Twickenham, quickly followed by his World Rugby Player of the Year accolade.

Horne, the Scotland centre, can't wait to face him. He said: "Fingers crossed he is involved because it would be amazing to play against him after what has happened over the past few days.

"Dan Carter is the benchmark for every single rugby back in the world – someone the likes of me has looked up to for years. Lining up against him in Paris would be a very special event for me."

Before the trip to France, Horne and his Warriors face a tricky jaunt to Wales to square up to Cardiff Blues as the bid to further step up their quest to keep their Guinness PRO12 title.

Horne said: "We have set ourselves the target of winning every league game before the Six Nations break. But the Blues will be dangerous because they are sure to be hurting after their defeat by Zebre at the weekend."

The Glasgow head coach Gregor Townsend is poised to bring back the rest of his World Cup men for the tussle, with the likes of Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell, Jonny Gray, Mark Bennett and Josh Strauss ready to slot into the starting line-up.

Horne added: "Beating the Ospreys was a great result and now we need to stay on a winning roll."

Meanwhile, the World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper has denied the organisation 'threw Craig Joubert under the bus' after admitting publicly that the referee made a game-changing mistake in Scotland's quarter-final defeat by Australia at the World Cup.

Joubert was pilloried for awarding Australia a disputed penalty that allowed Bernard Foley to kick the Wallabies to a dramatic 35-34 victory with just a minute to spare.

Television replays indicated the South African had been wrong to rule Scotland prop Jon Welsh had been deliberately offside and his error was compounded in the eyes of many when he instantly ran from the field at the full-time whistle.

World Rugby subsequently moved to clear up suggestions Joubert should have asked for the involvement of the Television Match Official by confirming that would not have been allowed according to the rules.

In doing so, however, the governing body confessed Joubert had not made the 'appropriate decision' and should instead have awarded a scrum to Australia.

But, with the tournament having climaxed with New Zealand's triumph in Saturday's final, Gosper has defended the decision to come out publicly on the issue.

He said: "I don't think we regret what we said to the press. What was clear was that we had to investigate why the TMO wasn't used. When you explain that, you also have to obviously own up to the fact that the TMO did show there was an error.

"We certainly weren't doing that to be critical of Craig Joubert, who is a great referee, one of the world's finest and a good man. Players make mistake, referees also make mistakes."