One would not necessarily blame Gregor Townsend for seeking to play up the positives as we contemplated another European failure for Glasgow Warriors at Scots-toun on Saturday night, writes Steve Scott rugby correspondent.
The head coach pointed out, not without foundation,that his team had competed well in four out of six games during this Pool 2 campaign,fine-tuning that to three and a half on second thoughts.
He was right to play up the pair of wins against a decent Exeter side, and that even in Saturday’s15-8 defeat against champions Toulon the Warriors had, as he put it, “showed really good attacking intent in the first half and put the European champions under pressure defensively”.
Yet, once again, the Warriors finish out of Europe on the third weekend in January, having unquestionably under-performed.
Those three and a half games playing decently were wholly offset by being 34-0 down in the first 40 minutes of the campaign in Toulon and losing twice to a Cardiff Blues team who were forced to field semi-pros in their pack due to an injury crisis.
Those games, not the effort and application on Saturday shown on a soddenScotstoun, are the source of frustration for the fans, and for the squad as well, said Townsend.
“The frustrating thing for us is that we showed that character and application in those other four games, but in the two Cardiff games we didn’t,” he said.
“We didn’t make the most of our possession in the match down there, losingball in their 22 and a poor penalty count, and up here we didn’t make the most of our possession when we were on the line.
“The two games against Exeter were really good and I was really proud of the players’ efforts here. Yes, we maybe let things slip with our discipline and not taking opportunities in that third quarter but it was a huge effort to come back in the end, huge character.
“So that’s the frustrating thing but I think we’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned what we can do against these teams and what we need to do to beat them.”
But the report card for all this learning lessons that Glasgow have done in Europe in recent times still gets a ‘C’ at best from most examiners with the remarks “Underachiever: Must try harder” scrawled underneath.
The consistency of their PRO12 play for the latterpart of last season and the early part of this one has made them realistic contenders for the title.
It should not escape anyone’s attention that three of the four other contenders from the league Munster, Ulster and Leinster will be playing in the last eight in Europe.
Glasgow might not be able to compare themselves with the money-spinning resources of Toulon or Clermont-Auvergne, but they compete favourably with the Irish trio, and regard themselves as their equals.
Yet we’ve never seen anything from the Warriorsto match, for example, Ulster’s unshakeable self-belief at Leicester, or the ruthless assurance of Munster in getting the necessary result against Edinburgh yesterday.
To be fair, on Saturday Glasgow did give it a decent lash against Toulon and on a decent pitch might have turned them over. Chris Fusaro, captain and refreshingly back to his best form, was an outstanding presence and deserved his cheeky opportunist try, the only one of the game.
Yet Toulon’s superstars did an unstarry shift, forcing penalties with pressure, and letting Jonny Wilkinson kick five out of seven to get what they wanted, a home quarter-final.
Glasgow may have played the better rugby and got the capacity crowd off their seats far more often, but it was a thoroughly professional performance by the champions.
Wilkinson will never be short of admirers but in performance and simpleawareness of where he needed to be on a tricky surface, he was at the heart of his team’s professionalism. Sadly, it was in marked contrast to the two frontline Scotland 10s Glasgow fielded.
Neither Ruiradh Jacksonnor Duncan Weir impressed and it is deeply troubling not least because they have one of Scotland’s most-capped fly-halves as their daily tutor in Townsend how neither is able to maintain any form or consistency.
The best 10 in terms of form in the Scotland set-up right now is a stop-gap moved from full-back, Greig Tonks. The problem position could be a crucial deficiency for Scotland going into the Six Nations.
While that’s on, Glasgow have a strong enough squad now to do pretty well. They should reach the PRO12 play-offs again and with a bit of luck might even win them.
But the real hallmark of quality is Europe, and their record there is just unacceptable.