Glasgow Warriors have touched great heights under Franco Smith’s astute leadership. Now the next step is to truly make their mark in the Champions Cup.
A European Challenge Cup final appearance in Smith’s first season and a United Rugby Championship title win in his second proved Warriors’ capacity to punch above their weight.
As with the Scotland national team, there is a sense that while Glasgow have made great strides over the past decade or so, there is a gulf still to be bridged to the elite sides.
Warriors have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup three times, under Gregor Townsend, Dave Rennie and Smith last season. On all three occasions they were completely dismantled – going down 38-13 to Saracens in 2017, 56-27 to the same opponents in 2019 and suffering a 52-0 mauling at the hands of Leinster in April.
After a stunning start to their European campaign this time around, with bonus-point victories away to Sale and at home over Toulouse, there is growing optimism that perhaps this time Glasgow can break through their glass ceiling.
Wins over Clermont Auvergne in France on Saturday and Saracens at home the following weekend is a tall order, but by no means out of reach. Manage that and a potential route of home fixtures all the way to the semi-finals could open up.
“I suppose the ball is in our court now,” said Glasgow assistant coach Nigel Carolan.
“Because we got five points against Sale, five points against Toulouse, it’s certainly changed the perspective on the competitions as well.
“The URC is important, but we’ve kind of done that the hard way. We know if we’re in even third or fourth, you’ve got to go away, maybe in a semi-final. We’ve been there and done that, that’s not foreign territory for us anymore.
“But the opportunity to get maybe a home round of 16 [in the Champions Cup], possibly a home quarter-final, there’s a lot riding and we won’t look any further than this weekend.
“We rested some firepower for this week and we’re going all guns blazing.”