SCOTLAND manager Gordon Strachan gave a team talk with a difference yesterday - to the Glasgow Warriors team as they prepare for their last home game before the PRO12 play-offs. Strachan entertained Gregor Townsend’s squad with tales from his days as a football player as well as his experiences of management, but he also had some serious advice for the PRO12 champions about how to keep a winning culture within a team.

“Gordon had us in stitches with stories that you definitely cannot tell anyone else,” Warriors head coach Gregor Townsend said. “But really good inspirational stories about what made Aberdeen and Leeds tick, what he believes these guys are working for - which is the memories of being together in those special moments, not necessarily the medals and the trophies.

“He stressed working together, winning together, having a good time together. It was excellent.”

Townsend was particularly interested in Strachan’s assessment of Sir Alex Ferguson, his former boss from his playing days. “I got a real insight into Alex Ferguson, which obviously can’t be repeated here.

“[And I got] an insight into why the Leeds environment was different, his thoughts on modern-day football coaching, how it’s different coaching at club and international level. It’s great to model to our players that we want to learn from other sports, to show that we’re a learning organisation, but also there were specific things that we got today.”

Rob Harley, who will captain the team at Scotstoun this evening, agreed with Townsend that the meeting with Strachan had been valuable. “Firstly it was good because he was very funny with how he was answering the questions and some of the stories he was telling,” the forward said.

“But the main thing from a playing perspective was how he felt they built success in their teams. The culture of the club drove the standards and everyone was trying to improve and they had that ethos of building a winning environment - and I thought that was very applicable to what we are trying to do here.”

The Warriors will finally secure a place in the play-offs if they beat Zebre at Scotstoun tonight, but their real goal is a home semi-final - something they will achieve if they also beat Connacht in Ireland next week on the last day of the regular season. They hammered Zebre 43-14 in Italy at the start of this month, but Townsend insisted there was no danger of taking a win for granted and that the squad were determined to be as competitive as ever.

“It has been like a normal week that you get sometimes, where they are maybe not as good as you want them to be, and then at other times they are very good,” he said. “Today was an example. We started training in the snow really poorly and then we got on the main pitch, still in the snow, and trained really well.

“Tuesday was an excellent day and Monday wasn't as good. We worked them hard because they had been off last week. The focus is there. People are determined to get an opportunity and have a chance to play in the semi.”

Stuart Hogg and Jonny Gray are among the big names who are being rested this week, while Finn Russell and Tommy Seymour are on the bench. Peter Horne is injured, but should be available for the Connacht match.

Glasgow Warriors (v Zebre at Scotstoun, tonight, 7.35pm): G Bryce; T Naiyaravoro, M Bennett, A Dunbar, S Lamont; D Weir, G Hart; J Yanuyanutawa, P MacArthur, D Rae, G Peterson, L Nakarawa, R Harley, S Favaro, A Ashe. Substitutes: F Brown, G Reid, Z Fagerson, T Swinson, R Wilson, A Price, F Russell, T Seymour.