Farrell is class but my man Hastings is up for the battle

RENNIE BACKING IN-FORM WARRIOR TO HANDLE HEAT

Glasgow warriors head coach Dave Rennie is backing rookie fly-half adam Hastings to outshine England star owen Farrell and lay the foundations for an opening day Heineken Cup win over saracens.

Rather than pick the more experienced Peter Horne to go head to head against Farrell, Rennie has put his faith in the 22-year-old, who only won the first of his three scotland caps against Canada back in June.

By comparison, Farrell, 27, has played 61 times for England, captaining them on their tour to south africa over the summer. He has also been on the last two British and Irish lions tours.

Farrell’s reputation does not bother Rennie, who is confident the son of rugby legend gavin can win the head-to-head and show the glasgow fans he can fill the boots of Finn Russell.

‘I have picked this one on form,’ said the warriors head coach ahead of tomorrow’s Pool 2 clash at scotstoun. ‘adam has been outstanding, organising the team well and igniting our play.

‘owen Farrell is class but I have a lot of confidence in adam. I’m sure they’ll try and put a bit of heat on him but he’ll be up for it.’

Rennie admits he thought Peter Horne, who is on the bench, was most likely to fill the void left when Russell left for Racing 92 this summer but insists he could not ignore the massive progress Hastings has made in a relatively short period of time.

‘we did look at bringing in another ten when we knew Finn was leaving and although we looked at a lot of foreign tens, we felt we were better off working with the young guys coming through like adam,’ he said.

‘It was the correct decision as he’s made massive strides and deserves his crack against saracens.

‘His game management has been really strong and he’s a real handful with the ball in hand. on top of that, he is able to create space for other people.

‘His work rate off the ball is massive and that is not something everyone will see. His anticipation, if there’s an error, to drop back in the midfield and work hard to get back in connection with the forwards, and to be an option in behind them, is a real strength.

‘He’s confident and although he is far from perfect he is going to learn a lot throughout this European competition and obviously playing against owen Farrell is great as he is one of the best tens in the world.’

For all Rennie’s talk of Hastings’ ability to dominate from ten, he will also send out his attack dogs, such as flankers Ryan wilson and Callum gibbins, to get up and in the face of Farrell as quickly and as often as possible.

‘we have to stop him at source, deny him ball,’ said the Kiwi-born coach. ‘He’s going to be a real handful if he has a lot of front-foot ball. He’s really good at playing the ball right on the line and throws a lot of inside balls. we can’t give him time and space.’

with Maro Itoje, Vincent Koch and Billy and Mako Vunipola, saracens have physicality and brute strength in abundance.

glasgow’s critics accused Rennie’s pack of lacking power in last season’s Heineken Cup but the head coach believes his men are up for the challenge the london side pose.

‘Everybody has two legs and can be tackled,’ said Rennie.

‘we are a big side but will have to defend better than we have done in recent weeks.

‘we have to chop them and slow their ball down.

‘That is important to give us a chance to get some line speed and give us a chance to get bodies on bodies. If we are passive and they get in behind us, and the big saracens men are charging onto us with the ball, it’s hard to slow them down.

‘The quality of our tackling is going to be massive for us and we have to get it spot on.

‘Their ability to play off their big men means they are going to ask a lot of questions of us up front, but we know what to expect and will be ready.’

glasgow have picked as strong a team as they possibly could with full-back stuart Hogg and tight-head prop Zander Fagerson out through injury. winger Tommy seymour is missing for personal reasons.

ali Price gets the nod at scrum-half ahead of george Horne because of his energy and ability to generate quick ball for his backs. GLASGOW WARRIORS: Jackson; Lee Jones, Huw Jones, Dunbar, van der Merwe; Hastings, Price; Kebble, Brown, Rae, Harley, Gray, Wilson, Gibbins, Fagerson. Replacements: Turner, Allan, Du Plessis, Peterson, Fusaro, George Horne, Peter Horne, Hughes. SARACENS: Goode; Strettle, Lozowski, Barritt, Maitland; Farrell, Wigglesworth; Mako Vunipola, George, Koch, Skelton, Kruis, Itoje, Rhodes, Billy Vunipola. Replacements: Tolofua, Barrington, Lamositele, Isiekwe, Wray, Spencer, Tompkins, Williams.