Glasgow will put an international class backline with Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour and Alex Dunbar returning from lengthy spells out of action to try to make at least a closing statement on their poor European Champions’ Cup campaign.
Hogg, absent since the Autumn Test series with hip and foot injuries, has finally been cleared to play and will start, as do Seymour (toe) and Dunbar (knee).
With Leonardo Sarto also returning and Finn Russell at 10, it’s a close to a full-strength set of backs that Dave Rennie could pick for the game against the Exeter Chiefs, who come to Scotstoun requiring a bonus point win for a quarter-final place.
“A lot of the guys we’re bringing back have internationals they are about to go into and they are all very enthusiastic to get back on the pitch and get a bit of form heading into that,” said Rennie. “For us, I guess what we are hoping now is that come the end of the year we will have a lot of choices and a fit side.
“I don’t think their minds will be elsewhere. They are all passionate Glasgow men and they want to perform well for the jersey.”
Glasgow won’t treat it like a “dead rubber”, he continued, although the performance rather than the result was what he was looking at after a desperately disappointing campaign in which all five games so far have been lost.
“There is not a lot of heat on us this weekend so we just want to go out and express ourselves, show that there is plenty of fight in us, and play for each other.
“If we can see evidence of that we’ll have a reasonable day. Exeter are coming here looking to grab five points to qualify so they’ll be up for it, we are playing against an excellent side with a lot of life and they will be desperate, so we have to match that.
“We’ve said all along this was a tough pool. We’ve seen a number of Pro14 teams do really well in other pools, but it’s still been good for us. Just deciding where we need to be, parts of our game need to be better.
“When we played them in the first game, three of their tries came from taking an inch at a time but we gave them seven five-metre lineout attacking opportunities.
“We have to deny them the chance to put us in the corner and win the battle of body height and we’ve done a fair bit of work on that.”
George Horne will start at scrum-half but there is only one change in the pack from the team routed last week at Leinster, Jonny Gray returning to the second row as captain.
Glasgow (vs Exeter Chiefs, ERCC, Scotsotun, 1pm ko, live on BT Sport): Stuart Hogg, Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Alex Dunbar, Leonardo Sarto; Finn Russell, George Horne; Jamie Bhatti, George Turner, Siua Halanukonuka; Rob Harley, Jonny Gray (capt); Matt Fagerson, Matt Smith, Adam Ashe. Replacements: Grant Stewart, Alex Allan, D’Arcy Rae, Greg Peterson, Chris Fusaro, Ali Price, Peter Horne, Lee Jones.
