'Yellow card didn't help' - but Adam Hastings looks forward to Glasgow Warriors' Dublin return

The stand-off likes the Aviva as a stadium and has enough good memories of wins over Leinster in his career not to be fazed by what happened a few weeks ago.

“It's a cool place to play,” said the stand-off. “You want to be playing against the best teams, so yeah, I'm looking forward to it.”

The defeat in the Investec Champions Cup quarter-final was the low point of Glasgow’s season and the start of a run of three defeats in four. They still have plenty left to play for and are already assured of a home quarter-final in the United Rugby Championship play-offs as they seek to defeat the crown they won so impressively last year.

This Saturday’s game with Leinster is the final one of the regular season and a chance to put right some of the things that went wrong in the Champions Cup. Hastings, who was sent to the sin-bin during a torrid first half in Dublin, thinks they are equipped to do so.

“We’ve revisited some of the things that we could have worked on last time,” he said. “I'm sure the coaches have put a good plan in place for us, so we're just getting into that now.

“I can't tell you what, or else they'll know! But my yellow card didn't help, so I'll try to stay on the pitch for 80 minutes this time. That was a big one but there are lots of little areas. Set-piece was one where we probably didn't quite go as well as we wanted, just winning our own ball.

“We've got certain focuses like that, and many more this weekend. Put a plan together and hopefully go well.”

“It's been a tricky period,” added Hasings. “Some things haven't been going quite as well as we'd want, but that's OK. That happens sometimes during a season. Ideally, you don't want it to happen, but most teams will have that. They'll have a patch where it's not going well, and then they'll have a really good purple patch. Hopefully, we're just coming into that now.”

Hastings has enjoyed his first season back at Glasgow after three years in the English Premiership with Gloucester. He watched from afar last June as the Warriors won the URC and would love to help them retain the trophy.

“We've got a home quarter already, but this week is going to have a big impact on potentially a home semi-final as well, if we win that quarter,” he said. “So, I think it's a big game for us, and not just for the league position, but also just for ourselves as well, because we are hurting still a little bit from last time, so it would be nice to put a few wrongs right.”