I watched Glasgow Warriors beat Connacht and noted Josh McKay cap debate - but where was Nicole Scherzinger?

Last weekend’s 33-33 draw with Ulster “felt like a defeat” to some members of the Warriors squad but the result still earned them three points.

They took the full complement of five against Connacht to make it 13 points from 15 after three rounds of the new season.

Glasgow’s five tries were scored by Gregor Hiddleston (two), Rory Darge, Josh McKay and Seb Stephen.

The URC takes a break next week, when the first matches in this season’s Investec Champions Cup are staged, with Glasgow away to Sale Sharks.

Here are some talking points from Friday’s win:

The real McKay

Gregor Townsend is expected to name his Scotland squad for the autumn leg of the Nations Championship a week on Tuesday and one of the decisions the national coach must make is whether to include Josh McKay.

The Glasgow Warriors full-back will qualify to represent Scotland next month by fulfilling the five-year residency requirement. The New Zealand-born player has Scottish heritage but it is too distant to be eligible. Nevertheless, he will soon be available and seems keen to wear the dark blue. Whether that happens as soon as November remains to be seen.

According to Franco Smith, the Glasgow coach, McKay would not be available until the final two matches of the autumn programme, so Townsend may decide against including him in this squad.

Scotland already have strong options at full-back. Blair Kinghorn of Toulouse has long been the first pick in the No 15 jersey and Kyle Rowe proved a more than able deputy when he played against Argentina and South Africa during the summer while Kinghorn was excused international duties.

There is also the versatile Tom Jordan who has shown he can play Test rugby at full-back.

Smith endorsed McKay’s credentials before the match against Connacht and McKay burnished them with a fine try in the 36-19 win. But the Glasgow coach is understandably reluctant to become too drawn into the debate.

“I think he qualifies for the last two Tests,” said Smith, when I asked him about the likelihood of McKay being selected. “So, I'm not sure. If they pick him, it's up to Scotland.”

Shade Munro thanked as Warriors go back to the tried and trusted

The lineout driving maul has always been a key weapon in the Franco Smith armoury but there were times last season when opposition teams seemed to have worked out a way of halting the rumble to the tryline.

But it was back with a vengeance on Friday as Glasgow plundered four tries from huge drives off the back of the set-piece.

Three of them came in the first half as the Warriors fought back from a tricky opening 15 minutes to wrest back control of the game. They scored another in the second half at a point when Connacht were threatening to come back into the match.

Smith, as magnanimous as ever, was keen to compliment his wider coaching team for the success of the maul, as well as players such as Scott Cummings and Jare Oguntibeju who weren’t on the end of the drives but who put in a huge shift to get the home pack over the line.

Included in Smith’s words of praise was a namecheck for Shade Munro, the former Scotland second-row and now the Warriors’ senior academy coach, for his work in this area.

Horne of plenty

George Horne’s value to Glasgow Warriors is difficult to overstate and it’s why a rare misstep last week against Ulster proved a big talking point in the build-up to Friday’s match with Connacht.

The scrum-half’s temper got the better of him during the Ulster match and he fired the ball at opposition hooker Tom Stewart after Glasgow had been awarded a penalty. The referee didn’t like it and reversed the award and Ulster went on to score soon after.

Horne apologised in the dressing room at half-time and Franco Smith insisted that the decision to drop him to the bench for the Connacht game had nothing to do with the incident.

As it turned out, Horne ended up starting against Connacht and had a typically fine game which included kicking four from five conversions. His late inclusion was caused by Kyle Rowe succumbing to illness. Jamie Dobie, originally selected at scrum-half, moved to the wing and Horne started at nine.

The other consequence of Rowe’s sickness was a late call-up for Callum Reidy who got to finally make his debut as a second-half replacement for Horne. The Aberdeen-born, Australian-raised academy prospect had sat on the bench for the first two games of the season and never got on.

Pussycat mauls

Ex-Glasgow and Scotland winger Thom Evans was at the game to see his former club enjoy a bonus-point win over Connacht and rumours soon spread that his significant other, Nicole Scherzinger, was with him in the Scotstoun main stand.

They proved to be wide of the mark as Scherzinger was otherwise engaged, performing in Newcastle with the Pussycat Dolls.

Maybe she can be enticed to a future Warriors match if touring commitments permit.

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