GLASGOW Warriors winger Lee Jones believes his team have a point to prove when they visit Northampton on European duty this weekend. The PRO12 champions were well beaten by the English club in their Champions Cup tie at Scotstoun, and need to win at Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday to keep their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals alive.

There is a lot of motivation to go down there and get a result, as they came up to us and got a result,” Jones said yesterday. “We’re in a position to qualify for the quarter-finals, which has not been done before, so there is extra motivation.”

Jones and the other backs will be expected to play their part in what is sure to be a tough match, but the real pressure is on the forwards. They were outplayed by Northampton at home, as they were by Racing 92 in Paris last weekend and by Edinburgh in the two 1872 Cup games before that. The English team have made a habit of scoring from lineout drives, and are sure to try to exploit any weaknesses in that department.

“They build their game on the set piece,” Jones continued. “We had a good look at them today and they pride themselves in their scrum and lineout.”

Meanwhile, the Warriors are closing in on a deal to instal a synthetic pitch at Scotstoun, according to chief executive Nathan Bombrys. Scotstoun, which is owned by Glasgow City Council, has been waterlogged on several occasions this season, and the Warriors have already switched their Champions Cup match against Racing 92 next weekend to Kilmarnock’s Rugby Park.

Scotstoun is also used for other sports, such as athletics, but Bombrys is hopeful that a deal can be struck, and believes he is “very close to a breakthrough” in talks with Glasgow Life, the council agency that administers the ground.

“It's done pretty well for us,” Bombrys told the BBC. “We are a tenant but have been able to make Scotstoun feel like home, but it has a weakness. When we get wet weather, the pitch does struggle and our expectations and requirements have grown.

“The way forward for us would be to get a 3G pitch in there. It would give us a good surface to play on and to train on, and would open up opportunities for the community and for athletics to use it as well. Where it falls short is that it is not conducive to throwing javelins and hammers on it. We are looking for solutions with Glasgow Life.”

The Racing game is the third time this season that Scotstoun has been deemed unplayable. The second 1872 Cup match against Edinburgh had to be moved to Murrayfield at the start of this month, while the PRO12 fixture against Leinster was postponed at the start of December.

Rugby Park’s capacity of 18,000 is around three times that of Scotstoun, but the Warriors will have to win at Northampton on Sunday if they are to attract a crowd of that size to the Racing match. With two rounds of pool games to go, the Saints are a point ahead of Glasgow in second place, while Racing can clinch the top spot if they beat Scarlets earlier the same day.

The winners of each of the five pools and the three best runners-up go through to the last eight. Glasgow’s team will be announced today.