Hastings isn’t to blame for our struggles, insists Horne

absent on Scotland duties last season, Hastings seized his opportunities and changed that plan.

Hastings’ inevitable dip in form has come at a vital time, as the Warriors go head to head with Cardiff Blues in Sunday’s crucial Champions Cup fixture.

And it has left Rennie with one of the biggest decisions of his career at Glasgow to date.

Horne’s fellow centre Sam Johnson returned to action last weekend and was one of the few outstanding successes in the team beaten by Treviso.

One option for Rennie would be for Horne and Johnson to form a highly creative centre partnership, removing a huge amount of responsibility from Hastings.

Alternatively, Horne could be moved infield to accommodate Johnson or, least likely, he could be asked to provide cover from the bench.

Whatever he is asked to do, the response was always going to be the same: “If need be, I’m ready.

“Just before the autumn, I played at 10 against Munster, then played there again in the league game against Cardiff,” Horne continued. “I’ve got a couple of 80 minutes in where we played quite well. I know life gets easier when you get consistency in a position. “When you move from 12 to 10, you just get the ball a little bit more.

“I’m pretty clear, I’ll just do all my prep this week and try to let things go.” If Hastings does start, he can count on the full support of his senior colleague, Horne making it clear the youngster should not be given a disproportionate share of blame for their recent problems. “We all could give him a bit more of a hand in terms of the last couple of weeks, but Adam’s fine,” said Horne. “His confidence is still there. He’s obviously very dangerous on the ball and it won’t take much for him to get back to his top form.”

However resources are deployed, Horne is among those squad members who have experienced the rare chance to quality for the knockout stages of the Champions Cup, something they have done only once previously.

“‘It feels similar to that because, back then, we also had it all to play for going into the last couple of games,” said Horne.

“It just makes everything that bit more exciting. It’s important that, from the first whistle, we show against Cardiff that we are the team who have something to play for.”

Worrying as their recent form may be, Horne reckons the prize at stake will provide the focus required to return to winning form.

“It’s obviously disappointing because it’s not often that we lose three games on the spin (but) it’s not often we’ve found ourselves in this position where our destiny is still in our own hands,” Horne noted.

“We are going into this game with all to play for, which is really nice.

“Normally for the last few years, the games (in Europe) have almost been a deadrubber by this point, so it’s great.

“You can always tell it’s a European week. The intensity picks up, the focus is there and you can feel it around the club that these are games everyone wants to be involved in.”