‘Energy, leadership, class’ - what Glasgow Warriors have missed in absence of star duo

They take on the Stormers at Scotstoun this Friday in the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals as they seek to retain the title they won so impressively last season.

Glasgow’s form has shaded in recent weeks and they have lost four of their last five matches, including their final three games of the URC regular season to the Bulls, Benetton and Leinster. They have been without Tuipulotu and Jones through injury for most of the second half of the campaign but the pair were reunited for the narrow loss in Dublin 10 days ago. It was their first outing together since January 10 and the hope is they can quickly quickly rediscover the form which made them such a feared midfield combination.

“Having guys coming back in like Sione and Huw is massive,” said Horne, the Glasgow scrum-half. “They're two of the best players in their position in Europe, if not the world, and it's been rightly recognised by their selection for the Lions. Those two guys coming back into any team is going to make a difference. The energy they bring, the leadership, obviously, just the class as well.”

‘We pride ourselves on our fitness’

Tuipulotu, who has recovered from an operation to repair a torn chest muscle, played the first 40 minutes against Leinster and, all being well, will link up again with Jones on Friday in what is a repeat of last season’s URC quarter-final. The sides were evenly matched for much of that game before the Warriors pulled away to win 27-10 through second-half tries from Sebastian Cancelliere, Henco Venter and Ross Thompson.

Horne expects a similarly tough encounter this week as the teams fight it out for the chance to play either Leinster or Scarlets in the semi-finals.

“Play-off rugby is a bit different to the regular season,” said Horne who has been voted Glasgow’s player of the season for the fourth time in his career. “It's the eight best teams that are left, first of all, so every game is going to be very tough. You've got to really work to break a team down because they're going to bring the best version of themselves. I think we did that throughout the play-offs last year, starting in the quarter-final. We managed the game fairly well and we got a bit of joy at the end of the game.

“We pride ourselves on our fitness and I think the work we did in the first 40 or 50 minutes paid off. In the last 20, we managed to score a couple of tries and make it a little bit more comfortable. We know it's going to be an absolute dogfight for 80 minutes this time, but hopefully we can grind them down.

“The last few weeks have been tough for us. We've probably not played our best, especially that game away in Treviso. We were miles off it that day. We definitely performed better out in Leinster, but we hate losing and we can't afford to do that now because if you lose, you're out.

“Hopefully we can bring back a performance that this occasion merits and we're desperate to do that, especially in front of our home fans.”