Glasgow Warriors head to London on Friday with a place in the last eight of the Investec Champions Cup on the line when they face Harlequins. 

As well as a first-ever competitive meeting between the two sides, Glasgow's players will go up against former boss Danny Wilson, who is now part of the Quins coaching staff.

Kevin Millar takes you through some of the important numbers ahead of the match at the Twickenham Stoop.

  • This will be the first ever meeting of these two clubs in a competitive fixture.
  • Between them, Harlequins and the Warriors have contested six quarter-finals, two Rounds of 16 and one quarter-final playoff in the Champions Cup and have no wins to show for their efforts. After nine previous failures, one of these teams is finally going to progress from a knockout fixture in this tournament!
  • Harlequins have played 18 matches so far this season (Europe plus Premiership) and average:
    • 28.4 points and 4.1 tries scored per game;
    • 24.9 points and 3.5 tries conceded per game.
  • Glasgow have played 17 matches so far this season (Europe plus URC) and average:
    • 26.0 points and 3.9 tries scored per game;
    • 16.9 points and 1.7 tries conceded per game.

Route to the Round of 16:

Harlequins (5th seeds) 

Racing 92 28-31 Harlequins, Harlequins 19-47 Toulouse, Cardiff 15-54 Harlequins, Harlequins 47-19 Ulster

Glasgow Warriors (12th seeds) 

Glasgow 19-28 Northampton, Aviron Bayonnais 11-12 Glasgow, Exeter 19-17 Glasgow, Glasgow 29-5 Toulon

Champions Cup average stats:

Carries per 80 mins
HARLEQUINS 135-121 Glasgow

Metres per carry
HARLEQUINS 4.2-3.9 Glasgow

Carries per line break/tackle break
Harlequins 3.6-3.5 GLASGOW

Passes per 80 minutes
Harlequins 144-160 GLASGOW

Tackles per 80 minutes
Harlequins 137-160 GLASGOW

Tackle completion
Harlequins 83%-91% GLASGOW

Lineout success
HARLEQUINS 85%-75% Glasgow

Scrum success
HARLEQUINS 96%-92% Glasgow

Penalties conceded per 80 minutes
HARLEQUINS 7.0-9.2 Glasgow

There are no guarantees, but the stats suggest this should be a high-scoring game with plenty of tries. Both of these sides have a pathological hatred of kicking penalties unless circumstances demand it.

During the pool stages, Glasgow only kicked a single penalty (accounting for just 4% of the 77 points they scored) while Harlequins went even further – no penalties at all and Marcus Smith’s drop goal away to Racing 92 represented their only points (out of 151 scored) that didn’t come from tries or conversions.

Potential route to the final:

These two sides are playing for a quarter-final place on the following weekend which will either be:

  • Away to fourth seeds, Bordeaux-Bègles; or
  • At home against 13th seeds, Saracens

For the Warriors that presents the prospect of another brand new matchup, having never before faced Bordeaux in a competitive fixture.

Of course, the alternative – if they can pull off their own upset away win – would be the vastly more familiar Saracens, who Glasgow played against in both of their previous Champions Cup quarter-final appearances in 2016/17 and 2018/19.

If either Harlequins or the Warriors reach the tournament semi-finals, it’s seeded to be a trip to France to play five-times winners, Toulouse – although Racing 92, Exeter and Bath may have a say in that.

The other side of the draw’s rankings are scheduled – in the event of no away wins - to send Northampton to Dublin to take on Leinster for a place in the final, which will be at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 25.