IT IS one thing to win away from home in the Guinness PRO12, it is another to repeat the feat in the European Champions Cup. As the Glasgow Warriors start work today on how they can travel to Paris to take on one of the biggest spenders in world rugby on their own patch and come away with a win, they know there is a lot they need to correct.

One thing is certain: any repeat of the 19 penalties and two yellow cards they gave away in Cardiff and there will be no repeat of the result. With another of the more pedantic officials taking the game in Paris – England's JP Doyle – they have to clean up their act quickly or face the consequences.

On the other hand, for all Glasgow's faults, they did come away from Cardiff Arms Park not just with with a win, but with a try bonus point, each one of the scores well constructed and ruthlessly taken. If their opponents had shown as much of a clinical edge, they would have been in more trouble but the Scottish masterclass in turning pressure into points was just enough to overcome their other woes.

"We did really well to build a lot of phases near their try line, we put them under a lot of pressure and came away with the results most times were were down there," pointed out Grayson Hart, the scrum half. "When we got past six or seven phases we seemed to get results, so that is something we need to keep building on. Definitely a lot of positives.

"The outcome was outstanding, it is great to win away from home and the bonus point is hugely beneficial for us in the Guinness PRO12, so we can take a lot from that, but also we really, really need to look at our performance and our discipline. We let in a couple of tries and to keep winning games we are going to have to fix those things."

Afterwards, Gregor Townsend, the head coach, reckoned his team had surrendered 19 penalties, nearly double those the Welsh side had given away and when you add the two sin bins and there were obvious problems to be solved.

"We have to be at our best, or close to our best, in the six games of the European Champions Cup or we won't get out of our pool, that is the reality any team in the Champions Cup faces," he said. "We have had a couple of good wins now but we have a number of things to work on. We know that we will have to raise our game substantially next week to be in a position to win."

He will hope that a less relevant issue is that his players did not cope well with the stiff wind blowing diagonally across the pitch. In the first half, in particular, they kicked badly and that accounted for a lot of the pressure they put themselves under with Rhys Patchell, the Cardiff fly half, kicking four penalties, the longest from inside his own half.

With seconds to go to the break the Welsh were leading 17-8, with Leone Nakarawa again showing his vision when he reached over the top of a ruck to ground the ball, while Gavin Evans, the centre, replied for Cardiff. The game swung full circle, however, either side of the break with Taqele Naiyaravoro, the wing, capitalising on a break from Tommy Seymour on the other side of the pitch immediately before the interval and Finn Russell putting the Scots ahead seconds after the restart with a penalty.

Even though the set piece was solid and they were coping comfortably with the Caridff maul the Scots could not stem the flow of breakdown penalties and when Ryan Wilson, newly on the field, was sin binned for his team's persistent offending, Cardiff took advantage to go back in front with two Patchell kicks.

Glasgow showed their clinical edge in a six-minute purple patch that brought tries for Ryan Grant and Jonny Gray, both using their strength to crash through the defence, and with Finn Russell converting both and adding a penalty, the 17 points looked to have made the game safe.

In the end, it was – but not before a final piece of drama with a penalty try and sin bin for Stuart Hogg when he was judged to have deliberately knocked on a Cardiff pass to a two-man overlap, bringing the scores to within five and encouraging the Welsh to launch a frantic last-ditch attempt to steal the game.

"With that discipline it would be tough to get a result [in Paris]," Hart admitted. "We made errors and put ourselves sunder pressure in that game. Racing 92 are a pretty classy outfit. You never know in a game of rugby – bounce of the ball, game of inches and all that – but against opposition like that, it will be tough to get the win if we put ourselves under that much pressure."