
Even though Glasgow Warriors have already advanced to the Investec Champions Cup knockout stage, they will still give it their all in Saturday night’s last group game against Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop.
Although Franco Smith’s team has a home matchup in the round of 16, they will finish first in Pool 4 and, should they advance that far, will have home advantage in the quarterfinals if they can get one more league point than Toulon manages to win on the road against Sale on Sunday.
There is no Sione Tuipulotu in the Warriors squad but Jack Dempsey makes a welcome return for the first time since he injured his shoulder in Scotland’s defeat by South Africa back on November 10.
Although the No. 8 has only made four appearances for Glasgow this season, his inclusion is appropriate for the national team given that the Six Nations starts in two weeks.
He looks good,” said Smith, the Warriors head coach. “He trained well and it’s a compliment to our S&C and medical departments.
They’ve done a great job. He can now go out there and express himself and make sure that he starts getting some minutes, important minutes, under the belt before the Six Nations.”
Jack Mann has been a more than adequate replacement in recent weeks – so good that his performances earned him a first Scotland call-up – but he gets a well earned rest, along with Tuipulotu.
No-one told the tournament organises about the latter’s absence and Tuipulotu was picked as one of the players to watch on the Champions Cup website this week.
Smith said the Scotland captain had been rested with one eye on the forthcoming Six Nations but conceded that the player had “some niggles”.
Stafford McDowall takes his place at inside centre and also captains Glasgow in the absence of Kyle Steyn who hurt his knee in the win over Racing 92 last Friday and will now miss the start of the Six Nations. Steyn is wearing a brace but Smith does not expect a long lay-off.
He’s had his assessment,” said the coach. “He looks good. He’s braced in the knee and it’s going to be a two-to-three-week injury. It all depends on how he gets better. It’s a little bit of pain management going forward. It’s not as bad as I originally feared.”
George Horne is another high-profile absentee from the team to play Harlequins. The scrum-half suffered a head injury against Racing and has been stood down for 12 days, meaning Jamie Dobie will start on Saturday against the side that eliminated Glasgow from the Champions Cup last season.
Quins won 28-24 at the Stoop that night in a thrilling last-16 tie which ebbed and flowed and still feels like one that got away to Smith.
“The result last year was a disappointment, but I thought we played really well there for most of the game,” he said. “It came down to two aspects. We gave away one maul try last year and it was against them in the last minute and we didn’t manage to score a maul try there.”
Marcus Smith, the England fly-half, was outstanding that evening, and needs to be carefully watched once more but Smith rightly feels that Glasgow have grown since then, particularly in terms of the experience they picked up in play-off games on their way to winning the United Rugby Championship.
The Warriors are sitting second on 12 points in Pool 4, one point behind Toulon who have also qualified.

The French side face Sale (five points) away on Sunday while Racing (four points) host the Stormers (five points) on Saturday in the other Pool 4 games.
Harlequins are also on five points so the race for the third and fourth qualifying spots is very much alive. And any slip-up by Toulon could open the door for the Warriors to win the group.
Harlequins have won just one of their three group matches but they were highly impressive in dismantling the Stormers 53-16 before Christmas.
Defeats in France by Racing and Toulon have hampered their progress but Danny Wilson’s side are a different proposition at the Stoop.
Wilson, the former Glasgow coach, can call upon six players in his starting XV who have been included this week in England’s Six Nations squad: forwards Fin Baxter, Chandler Cunningham-South and Alex Dombrandt; and backs Smith, Cadan Murley and Oscar Beard.
There was little between the sides last season and it will likely be close again but Glasgow are more street-wise now and have enough nous to come out on top.