Glasgow Warriors hoping to break the barrier in European Champions Cup

Glasgow Warriors co-captain Henry Pyrgos is confident of creating history in the upcoming European Champions Cup.

Despite, their success in the Pro 12 tournament, Glasgow Warriors have never managed to get past the pool stage in the European competition and Pyrgos is hopeful his team can cross the barrier this time around.

Placed in Pool 1 of the Champions Cup, Glasgow Warriors have a formidable task of upstaging Leicester Tigers, Racing 92 and Munster in the first stage and they will take on the Welford Road outfit first.

“We have a big season ahead, we have got a lot of tough teams but for us it is all about qualifying and getting out of our Pool,” said Pyrgos. “It’s something we have never done before and then we can take it from there.

“The Champions Cup is the next step up from our league. You get to play against the best teams in Europe and the best players and I know the players look forward to it.

“Just look at our group we have Leicester, Munster and Racing and they are all huge clubs and they all have huge players and we can go and test ourselves against the best around.

“Last year against Racing we ran them close away from home and then, albeit against a changed team, we beat them at home and Saracens were the only team to beat them in the competition at that time.

“Racing are a huge team, they have been brilliant in the last few years so it will be exciting. They have quality around the whole pitch but we will be focusing on our jobs and what we need to do to put in a good performance.”

This year's final will be played in BT Murrayfield and Pyrgos hopes it will motivate the team to perfrom well this season.

“Obviously Munster and Leicester are previous winners of the competition so it is hugely exciting,” added Pyrgos. “They play in great stadiums in Thomond Park and Welford Road and again they have loads of quality players so it is exciting to test us against those teams.

“BT Murrayfield is a special place for me as I made my first cap for Scotland there and I obviously played in other internationals there and it is always a special moment.

“Last year there was a lot of chat in our team with the Pro12 final being there and we were all disappointed we couldn’t get there after losing to Connacht in the semi-final.

“So it is a huge motivation for us and to get to that point would be very special for us.”

European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) is the organiser of the European Rugby Champions Cup, the European Rugby Challenge Cup and the Challenge Cup Qualifying Competition. Follow all the excitement of another thrilling season of European action at www.epcrugby.com