Rennie sure he can bank on Hastings to deliver
IT HAS been a period Adam Hastings will likely want to forget in a Glasgow shirt but head coach Dave Rennie has once again put his faith in the young No 10 to secure his side a home Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final.
Last week against Cardiff, Hastings was sidelined for Brandon Thomson as the Warriors ran out 33-24 bonuspoint winners at Scotstoun.
Edinburgh’s win at Murrayfield last night has ensured Rennie’s men a best runner-up place in the next round but a win against Saracens at Allianz Park today will afford them home-field advantage — a very worthy prize.
Glasgow have lost all four of their previous meetings with the English giants, yet their opening Champions Cup match was a decidedly closer affair than previous encounters as Sarries scraped past with a 13-3 victory.
In what has been a difficult spell for Warriors, the man at the helm now looks for his ambitious fly-half to return to his glittering best.
‘We need to go down there and have the mindset of winning the pool,’ said Rennie. ‘Adam has been our best ten throughout the season. He’s been working really hard on areas that we need to make some shifts in. And we think he’s ready to go. He’s certainly trained and prepared well.
‘It’s a big game. Our mindset is we need to put a team out that is best suited to win this, and Adam’s been a big part of what we’ve done well this year.’
Hastings is joined by Ali Price at scrum-half, just pipping George Horne for the starting jersey, while Jonny Gray returns at second row and, due to Callum Gibbins’ recent injury, Chris Fusaro and Rob Harley join Ryan Wilson in the back three. ‘They’ve got a massive pack, they maul a lot, so with Swino (Tim Swinson), and Rob on the park as well as Jonny (Gray), we’ve got a really strong defensive lineout and maul,’ said Rennie.
‘Rob’s been outstanding. I thought he was really strong at six last week and what we’ve got is a couple of loose forwards on the bench who can give us impact. You know it’s horses for courses, we just think this is the best pack to measure up against Saracens.
‘It’s pretty tight as we often talk about between those two guys (Price and Horne). Ali’s probably got a superior pass, so the speed of ball is going to be important for us.
‘I think he’s on top of his game, too. He’s been organising the big men really well around him and he’s a threat with ball in hand.’
In the last three years, just one quarter-final has gone against the hosts. Racing 92 overturned Clermont last season, only to be undone in the final by Leinster. Rennie, therefore, is under no illusion to what’s at stake.
‘We are clear on what we need to do to make that happen (home quarter-final),’ he added. ‘What we need to win by, etc. It would be great but we need to perform really well and we are going to have to go against a really strong side.’