Racing 92 v Glasgow Warriors: Champions Cup preview
Saturday 14 November 2015 09:17, UK
Glasgow will look to start their Champions Cup campaign in style when they visit Racing 92 on Saturday.
The trip to the Stade Yves-Du-Manoir is the Warriors' 50th away game in the European Cup but they have won just six of those fixtures.
Head coach Gregor Townsend has named an all-Scottish backline as Sean Lamont replaces Taqele Naiyaravoro on the wing and Mike Blair is preferred to Grayson Hart at scrum-half.
Captain Jonny Gray and Leone Nakarawa continue in the second row after both scored tries against Cardiff last weekend while Scotland prop Ryan Grant is promoted to the starting line-up.
Racing make wholesale changes to the side that was crushed by Castres on Sunday with Remi Tales partnering captain Maxime Machenaud at half-back.
France internationals Brice Dulin and Bernard Le Roux and Wales lock Luke Charteris all come into the starting line-up for Racing's first meeting with Glasgow.
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The Parisians have lost just one of their previous seven games on home soil and won all three pool matches last season.
"We've never played Racing 92 before so it'll be a good test against a highly ambitious team," said Townsend.
"They have put together a strong squad with a lot of internationals so we're well aware of the challenge we face."
Racing 92: 15 Johannes Goosen, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Henry Chavancy, 12 Alexandre Dumoulin, 11 Marc Andreu, 10 Remi Tales, 9 Maxime Machenaud (c); 1 Eddy Ben Arous, 2 Camille Chat, 3 Ben Tameifuna, 4 Luke Charteris, 5 Francois van der Merwe, 6 Wenceslas Lauret, 7 Bernard Le Roux, 8 Chris Masoe.
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Julien Brugnaut, 18 Cedate Gomes Sa, 19 Thibault Dubarry, 20 Yannick Nyanga, 21 Xavier Chauveau, 22 Benjamin Dambielle, 23 Casey Laulala.
Glasgow: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Peter Horne, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Mike Blair; 1 Ryan Grant, 2 Pat MacArthur, 3 Sila Puafisi, 4 Leone Nakarawa, 5 Jonny Gray (c), 6 Rob Harley, 7 Simone Favaro, 8 Josh Strauss.
Replacements: 16 Shalva Mamukashvili, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Zander Fagerson, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 Ryan Wilson, 21 Grayson Hart, 22 Richie Vernon, 23 Taqele Naiyaravoro.
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