They dare not make a mess of this on Friday or else their season, that promised so much only a few short weeks ago, will go up in a puff of smoke. That fear should focus their mind. They let one fantastic opportunity slip against Toulon so they must be driven to the high heavens to avoid a repeat.
There is a subplot in all of this in that Lancaster Snr is coaching against Lancaster Jnr – Stuart versus his son, Dan, the Glasgow fly-half. Both of them committed to a vow of silence during the week. No wonder.
For Glasgow this is a must-win. In the subconscious mind of some of their supporters they have probably already won. The visitors are a strong, cohesive unit but there are few stellar names in there. There’s Bundee Aki, getting better with age, and Cian Prendergast, the captain and back-row. Darragh Murray is not box office but the lock scored for Ireland against Scotland in the Six Nations in the spring.
Beyond that, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Clever players who are loaded with confidence if not marquee appeal.
Glasgow have both. Scrum-half George Horne is back in the team in recent weeks and their three-match losing run ended as soon as he returned. Horne is the heartbeat, the whirling dervish, the guy who teases and torments opposing defences with the slickness of his service, his eye for space and his speed to get in behind them.
He takes Glasgow to a different level but, to Smith’s relief, he has other talismen who can do a similar job. Scott Cummings, the dog at lock, is back. He has not been seen since Scotland’s meeting with France in the Six Nations in early March.
Gregor Brown is still unavailable but Smith has all sorts of artillery. Huw Jones will play no part but Stafford McDowall would start even if he was. This is a Glasgow team rich in experience and class. They will take some beating. Anything other than a home win would be a sensation.
