Glasgow Warriors debrief: The missed opportunity, no excuses and the top-two knock-out game

In fact, the stand-in skipper labelled it a “missed opportunity” to widen that gap, as they played after Connacht had pulled off a surprise victory against second placed Stormers in Cape Town. Even a losing or try scoring bonus point would have been something for Warriors to extend their advantage ahead of their own trip to the DHL Stadium next week.

Instead, it’s as you were for the top two, with the stakes as high as ever for that match which is set to have huge ramifications on the landscape of the play-offs. McDowall believes that Glasgow have a lot to work on between now and Saturday after their bruising defeat in Johannesburg.

‘Frustrating’ for Glasgow Warriors who fail to capitalise on Stormers defeat

Asked if the Stormers result was a silver lining from an otherwise disappointing day, the Scotland centre said: “It's almost more frustrating. I think we'll look at it from that way.

“I don't look at everyone else too much, but it's probably an opportunity missed in terms of even if we come out today with one or two points, then we keep opening up the gap.

"Obviously it helps us that Connacht have beaten Stormers and they've got nothing from today as well, so there's still a bit of a gap. But yeah, it's all to play for next week. We know they're going to be hurting and we know they're going to come out firing."

Glasgow’s defeat at the hands of the Lions was just their fourth of the URC season but it was a game where they were comfortably second best. The hosts dominated at the break down and Warriors couldn’t live with their high-octane offloading game.

“We just got too loose in that first half, especially our breakdown,” added McDowall. “We let them in on the breakdown and off turnover ball, they're so dangerous. When you've been attacking against them, they're good off turnover ball and we just let them have too much of it.

“They've got a big physical forward pack and when they go forward and on a day-to-day when they chuck offloads and stuff and a lot of them stuck today, it's tough to stop.

"We just need to be a bit more physical. We talked about getting a bit more time in the tackle, trying to stop them getting that offloading game on, but once they get it going, it's hard to stop.”

‘Pretty much a knockout game’ - Glasgow Warriors set for crunch match against Stormers

Playing in the altitude in Johannesburg is, of course, always a challenge, along with a heavy pitch at Ellis Park. On top of that, Warriors are hit hard with injuries throughout their squad.

"We're not going to use the conditions as an excuse, we prepped for it back in Scotland,” added McDowall. "We back the depth of our squad right the way through.

“We had 15 guys out on the field just like they did and we just weren't on it enough today, especially at the break down. We always talk about whoever fills the jersey has got to do a job and unfortunately the Lions were just better than us today.

“We travel down to Cape Town for a big game next week. It's pretty much a knockout game against Stormers to define who's finishing at the top."

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