After helping fire Glasgow into the United Rugby Championship (URC) Grand Final, George Horne admitted he would “love” to repeat the achievements of his brother Pete in 2015 and get his hands on the trophy.
Pete played at inside centre in the final win in Belfast nine years ago, and barring injury his younger brother will start at scrum-half for the Warriors at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening.
Scotstoun is littered with pictures of that famous day – from Rob Harley’s try to Al Kellock lifting the trophy and the post-match celebrations at Kingspan Stadium.
READ MORE: Franco Smith praises Glasgow for adapting in Munster win
While Horne junior urged caution against a Bulls side who showed both physicality and skill in droves to defeat a star-studded Leinster side in their own semi-final, he hopes to add to the Warriors picture collection this weekend.
The 29-year-old said: “We would love to add to the success of the guys in 2015.
“Now we’ve made it to the final, of course we want to go all the way, but we can’t get carried away with that.
“There is still a huge week ahead and another massive challenge against the Bulls.
“But we’re excited about it: we can’t wait to get out there and give it our best shot. Hopefully we can add to the history of what that team did in 2015.”
At Thomond Park Glasgow showed they have the gnarl and fight to add to their free-flowing attacking game as they dumped the defending champions out of the URC. In a hostile environment, the Warriors took heed of Munster’s great mantra ‘stand up and fight’ and met their hosts’ physical challenge head on.
Horne knows they will need all of those qualities against Jake White’s team in the final.
“I think we showed a different side to us to what people are maybe used to seeing,” he said of the performance in Limerick.
“As with last week against the Stormers, it was a fairly mature performance from us. We got out of our own half fairly well and without the ball it was a massive shift. They threw everything at us, as we knew they would, and we stood up to it well.
“The forward pack were outstanding again, so we were just delighted to again defend so well and manage to sneak the win.
“In knock-out rugby, we’ve had to adapt our game plan and be a little bit more pragmatic.
“Playing these big games against the best teams, you’ve got to find a way to win and it’s good we’ve been able to do that these last two weeks.”
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There were enough Glasgow fans in Thomond Park to hear chants of ‘We are Warriors’ and a rendition of Flower of Scotland as the victorious Warriors celebrated a famous win.
But Horne acknowledged that the ‘Warrior Nation’ are unlikely to be flying out to Pretoria en masse at such short notice.
“It will be a logistical nightmare for anyone to try to get out,” he said, while remaining hopeful some may choose to make the pilgrimage to one of world rugby’s most famous arenas.
Horne added: “I’m sure some of the faithful will manage to get themselves over, so we’ll feel the support out there for sure.”
When the two teams met at Loftus Versfeld last month, the Bulls were 37-17 ahead inside the final quarter, only for Glasgow to mount a stirring comeback, falling just short as the hosts prevailed 40-34.
READ MORE: Five things we learned as Glasgow fall short against Bulls
Horne knows allowing the South Africans another big lead will likely mean the end of Glasgow’s title dream.
He said: “We can’t afford to give teams that big a head start, especially in finals. Hopefully we can still finish strong, but hopefully it will be a completely different game out there next week. And in a final anything can happen.”
Horne added: “We definitely take confidence from the way we finished. We work hard on our fitness and like to come in at the back end of games still being dangerous.”
The 30-times capped Scotland international said there are plenty of lessons Glasgow can take from that game. Not allowing the Bulls’ elusive back three to counter-attack, and dominating the breakdown among them.
He also believes they are better for the humbling experience of losing last year’s Challenge Cup final to Toulon.
That was a sobering evening for Franco Smith’s charges as they were soundly beaten 43-19 by the French side.
Horne insisted the Warriors have matured since then.
He added: “We’ve had another year together with a fairly settled squad. We’ve played in a few big knockout games and lost - the quarter-final last year, the last 16 of the Champions Cup this year.
“We have taken lessons from those games and adapted where we had to. That’s shown in the last two weeks.
“We’ve made ourselves hard to beat and that’s what you need to be in knockout rugby.”
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