Glasgow Warriors hope not-so-secret weapon can stop Toulouse in their tracks

The French giants are not used to playing on an artificial surface and the home side will attempt to tire out their big pack by playing at pace on the fast track.

Both sides made winning starts to the new Investec Champions Cup campaign, with Glasgow securing a bonus-point victory away at Sale on Friday and Toulouse thrashing South African side the Sharks at home on Sunday.

No side have enjoyed more success in this competition than six-time winners Toulouse but Glasgow are a tough nut to crack at Scotstoun and their defence coach, Scott Forrest, hopes they can use home advantage to the full.

“Toulouse are a quality team, they've got a really strong history in the competition,” said Forrest. “They're littered with quality international players, but then you could say the same about us. We're pretty confident that if we get things right, we know playing at home, we get a full crowd behind us, that it could be a pretty special night.”

‘Pretty large humans’

The game is a sell-out and there is a clamour to see how the Warriors get on against the star-studded visitors. Dupont, widely regarded as the world’s best player, is the main draw but there is no shortage of box-office talents with the likes of Romain Ntamack, Thomas Ramos, Ange Capuozzo and Scotland’s own Blair Kinghorn in their squad

Forrest has urged Glasgow to embrace the challenge and build on last season’s European run which saw them reach the Champions Cup quarter-finals where they were well beaten by Leinster.

“We want to progress as far as possible,” said Forrest. “Our challenge is to go and win trophies. We believe we can with the squad that we've got.

“I think we're probably not looking that far ahead with European games right now. It's a case of, we’ve won our first game and winning away from home is obviously a big thing for us now. Any team that wants to progress in a European competition, you've got to win your home games, really.

“We'll shine a light on that, but any team coming to Scotstoun, on the plastic pitch, with a full crowd behind us – it’s going to be tough for them. And we're really looking forward to the challenge.”

In addition to their backline talents, Toulouse also boast a gargantuan pack but Forrest hopes to use that to Glasgow’s advantage.

“They've got some pretty large humans playing for them,” he said. “I think we know where their strengths lie, they do have a very big pack, their game's built around physicality, but I think we've got to play to our strengths. One of them has been mentioned which is the pitch. We want to play a game that's built around intensity and speed, so we've got to create an intensity within our game that makes life very uncomfortable for Toulouse. We don't want them to be able to dictate that to us.

“There's not many 3G pitches in France, I'm not sure if there's any in the Top 14, and our boys are used to training on that day to day, playing on it every other week.

“Not every player, team or club is used to that. Yes, it's an advantage. But like I say, we've got to make it an advantage, it won't just take care of itself. You want to move their big men around, you want to make them get up and down off the ground, we want to tire them out.”