Ex-Howe of Fife scrum-half George Horne hopes Glasgow Warriors’ trophy win will be springboard to success for Scotland too

The 29-year-old was part of the Warriors side that made history on Saturday by beating Pretoria’s Bulls 21-16 at their Loftus Versfeld Stadium home ground in this year’s United Rugby Championship final.

Not only was that the first time a Scottish side had won the URC but it was also Warriors’ first major honour since the elder Horne, 34, also a former player for the Cupar club and now an assistant to Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend, helped them clinch 2015’s Pro12 title.

His younger brother played all 80-plus minutes of Saturday’s victory, converting tries by lock Scott Cummings on 40 minutes, replacement hooker George Turner on 55 and outside centre Huw Jones on 65 to add six points to head coach Franco Smith’s visitors’ tally as they fought back from falling 13-0 behind to edge out their hosts by five points.

The younger Horne, as well being delighted by Saturday’s victory in its own right, is hoping, with Warriors players accounting for approaching half of the Scotland squad heading off on a tour of Canada, the USA and South America next week, that it will act as a springboard to success for the national team too.

“Everyone knows this Scotland team have got the potential to be as good as anyone,” said 30-times-capped Horne.

“It’s just been getting it done in the big games and the big moments. We’ve not managed to get that done recently.

“This is something we can build on now going forward at Glasgow and hopefully we’re going to provide a lot of players for the Scotland team and can then bleed that into there as well.

“It’s a different dynamic playing in these knockout games against the best teams from Ireland and South Africa.”

Horne, a former student at Cupar’s Bell Baxter High School, believes his game improved during this month’s URC play-offs as the Warriors beat two former champions, Cape Town’s Stormers and Munster, by 27-10 at home and 17-10 away respectively, on their way to the final and he’s hoping that continues.

“Going into these last three weeks, you’ve seen a different side of my game in terms of a bit more control and accuracy in kicking,” he said.

“That’s been great for me personally, but all the boys have come on leaps and bounds.”

Horne only started once for Scotland in this year’s Six Nations, for their 31-29 loss away to Italy in March, coming on as a replacement for Ben White in all but one of their other games, and he’s now targeting establishing himself as first choice for that No 9 shirt, saying: “That’s something I want to try to do.

“I want to make myself number one at Scotland, but so does everyone and they’re all working really hard to do that.

“In the last few weeks, these knockout games have been more like test matches and we have all shown we can manage those big moments well.

“That’s something that I want to take forward to the Scotland tour and see what happens.”

Townsend’s Scots play the first of their four tour matches against Canada in Ottawa on Saturday, July 6, with kick-off at 10pm, then take on the USA in Washington DC on Friday, July 12, at 11.30pm.

After that, they head south to play Chile on Saturday, July 20, in Santiago at 8pm and Uruguay in Montevideo seven days later, also at 8pm.

Horne is one of 15 Warriors in the Scots’ 37-strong touring squad, along with 11 Edinburgh players, including ex-Howe flanker Jamie Ritchie.

Howe have added their voice to their chorus of applause for Warriors, posting on Facebook: “A huge congratulations to former Howe player George Horne and Glasgow Warriors, 2024 URC champions.”