Franco Smith, the Glasgow Warriors head coach, has admitted he wanted to keep Henco Venter at the club but said there has been a move to have fewer foreign players in the Scottish game. Venter, the South African back-row forward, scored two tries and was player of the match as Glasgow beat Leicester Tigers 43-19 to book their place in the quarter-finals of the Investec Champions Cup. They will meet four-time winners Leinster at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin in the last eight on Friday evening. Venter, 33, signed for the Warriors ahead of the 2023-24 season and played a key role as they won the United Rugby Championship. But it was announced last month that he would be leaving at the end of the current campaign to join the French second-tier side Brive. “If it was up to me, definitely he would stay,” said Smith who has worked with the player previously in South Africa. “Other factors came into play. And, you know, from our side, from Scotland rugby side, there's a movement in the direction of having less foreigners. And at the same time, [Venter] had a very good offer. If he was my son, I would have said to him, ‘I understand why you're going’. “He's 33 years old. He’s coming to the back end of his career. He's playing well. But, you know, again, as much as he made a difference for Glasgow rugby, we also made a difference in his life. We should be proud of it.” Scottish Rugby is currently trying to improve the supply of native talent into the national set-up. David Nucifora, the Australian performance director who did so much to revitalise Irish rugby over the past decade, was hired by Murrayfield in January in a “performance advisory role” to improve the player pathway system. Smith, meanwhile, has urged his side to “give it a go” in Dublin on Friday and atone for their last performance at the Aviva when they lost heavily to Toulon in the final of the 2023 European Challenge Cup. Leinster, who destroyed Harlequins 62-0 in the round of 16 on Saturday, will be overwhelming favourites to reach the Champions Cup semis. “Last time we went to the Aviva, we lost against Toulon there,” said Smith. “So it's important for us to at least go and give it a full go. The way Leinster played on Saturday just proves why they've got so many quality players and why they are so highly rated. It’s a massive challenge. We're going to go there and apply ourselves, but also get to learn a little bit and experience that environment again and compete against a team that's really, really full of stars, but also very capable of winning and has the same desire to win some silverware. “A lot of our team has played there last year in the Six Nations and this is how they're going to learn, so let's step up to the plate now. “And if we come back from there and haven't won, we should have other objectives achieved. And so we will have more than one objective this week. But we're going to try and give it our full go, of course.” The winners of the quarter-final in Dublin will meet either Northampton Saints or Castres Olympique in the semis.