Horne sends Gregor a message

George Horne is hoping his Glasgow Friday night super-show will be enough to persuade Scotland boss Gregor Townsend to give him a Six Nations starting berth.

The scrum-half bagged two trademark tries as thewarriors shot down Zebre 54-24 to boost their Pro14 play-off hopes.

And Scotstoun man-of-the-match Horne was denied a hat-trick by a desperate foul tackle just a metre out. He was determined to make a statement after Townsend left him marooned on the bench for the whole of last weekend’s Calcutta Cup defeat.

Now he has given the coach a selection headache for Saturday’s Wooden Spoon decider in Rome.

Horne said: “It was great to be back with Glasgow in front of our fans and I was mad keen to get some game time.

“We had let things slip in our league section before Christmas, but we are clawing our way back into things.”

Under-fire Scotland skipper Stuart Hogg admitted his first Premiership try for Exeter helped exorcise his Six Nations demons.

Hogg’s match-winning effort against Gloucester came less than a week after his defensive bungle handed England Calcutta Cup glory.

Seven days earlier, he’d hit the headlines for butchering a Scots touchdown by spilling the ball over the line as Ireland triumphed in Dublin.

And he grinned after the cracker at Kingsholm: “I have never been so careful about making sure I touched it down properly!

“I’d been taking a bit of a ribbing after what had happened, so I wasn’t going to make any more mistakes.”

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