TOMMY Seymour makes his 100th appearance for Glasgow Warriors in the unfamiliar position of full-back tonight as the 2015 PRO12 champions try to keep their slim play-off hopes alive by beating Leinster in Dublin. The fact that they are still even hypothetically in the hunt with two games to go is testament to the team’s fighting spirit, and they will have an extra motivation this evening: the aim of claiming a first victory at the RDS Arena under Gregor Townsend, for whom this is his last away game in charge of the team.

Even if the Warriors do win with a bonus point, they will still need other results to go their way, otherwise they will definitely be out of the top four for the first time in six years. And if they are still in with a chance after this round of games, they will have to do it all again next week by beating Edinburgh – again with a bonus point – while once more relying on other results to fall their way.

Not that Townsend and his assistant coaches have wasted any time worrying about the permutations that would take them into the top four. Instead, he said, they simply wanted to go and complete the double for the season over Leinster, having beaten the Irish province at Scotstoun back in September.

“We would need the stars to align in a big way,” the head coach explained. “We need Ulster and Ospreys to draw the following day, and that’s obviously unlikely. Our job is go out there and win: that’s all we can talk about this week.

“As a coaching group we’ve never won at Leinster. We’ve not won there in five years. We’ve drawn, we’ve lost by three points, by two points. We’ve always had really good games against Leinster at the RDS, and we’d love, in the last time playing there as a coaching group, to come away with a win. And obviously our players are really determined to do that.”

Finn Russell and Alex Dunbar are among the usual starters who are on the bench this evening, while Stuart Hogg is not in the squad at all. Seymour, normally a winger, has moved back to 15 to accommodate Leonardo Sarto and Lee Jones, giving him a chance to display a versatility that might be useful on the Lions tour.

“He’s earned that call-up with the consistency he showed,” Townsend said of Seymour. “He’s played really well for Glasgow this year and Scotland.

“First of all his finishing ability for both those teams has been very good this year. He works really hard off the ball, so he gets involved in attack off nine, off 10 – there was a cracking try he scored against Leicester working off Ali Price and fighting through tackles.

“He’s one of the best players in the game in the air, so catching our own kicks but also any kicks that go up from the opposition. Again, he was in a very competitive position, but his quality came through and he got on that tour.

“We have a lot of wingers back, fit, available, playing well. We didn’t select Lee in the last game – he’s been excellent this season. Leo came back, played well.. Tommy has always been an option for us in games to go to full-back and this week, not involving Stuart, it gives us a chance to look at Tommy from the beginning at 15.”