IT was an emotional weekend for Glasgow Warriors, holed up in their hotel outside Paris while the tragic events were going on 15 minutes away at the Stade de France and a bit further afield in the centre of the city. Now that they are back in Scotland, however, Mike Blair, the experienced scrum-half, is confident the players can overcome all those memories and focus their entire energies on beating Northampton this weekend.

"Last weekend was very difficult," he admitted. "You maybe go to bed at 10pm before a game but information was coming out around then and that drags on. It is difficult to sleep when you are so close to it. It is difficult to pass it by like that but we have to do that and try to move on. Guys in the squad were upset by it but we have to try our best to move on from that."

A minor, but practical, problem for them all was that as events unfolded it became less and less likely that their game against Racing 92 last Saturday would go ahead, but it was not until the following morning that the decision was made to call it off. In the meantime, everybody felt they had to prepare for it, just in case the organisers went for the defiant "you can't stop us" option and decided to play on.

"I went through different emotions," Blair admitted. "We are ready, we are prepared – maybe we should get this game done? But it did not feel right, it wasn’t right to play. We were getting the same information as everybody else from the news, Twitter, or whatever but we did not know what the situation would be the next day. It played on peoples' minds. It was the right thing for us and for the people of Paris.

"Those were were difficult circumstances last weekend. We will be seeing this week as our first in Europe all over again. We are charged up to get going, we were enthusiastic, we were ready to go last weekend, but now the first game is a home game."

The task for the Blair and his colleagues in the Glasgow Warriors team is to put all that to one side and concentrate on this week's challenge against one of the leading sides in the English Premiership.

"You move on quicker," observed Blair. "We are ready for Northampton now. We have put in the preparatory work and it puts us in a strong position. It hasn’t been hard for me to focus on things this week. I can’t speak for individuals – it was a distressing weekend for a lot of people but we were outside the city and, from a rugby point of view, we have been able to shift our focus."

Few players understand the challenge of Northampton better. Blair played them back in the days when he was in Edinburgh colours but also has more recent experience knows not just what to expect but how to overcome it.

"I've played Northampton with both Edinburgh and Newcastle," he said. "They [try to] bully and outmuscle you and that seems to be the way they are going to approach the game. The most successful half I have had against them was for Edinburgh when we were able to play with tempo and move their big forwards around. We have guys at the club to do that.

“They played last week [against the Scarlets] the same way they always play, they try to be physical and look to bully you. We don’t expect anything massively different from them on Saturday. They have a varied kicking game and we are very well aware about what they will bring. Our defence is going to massive, stopping them from getting the go-forward ball and manipulating us."

As one of the few in the squad who knows what it is like to go into the quarter-finals of Europe, having done it both towards the start and the end of his career at Edinburgh, Blair has plenty of understanding to bring to the challenge.

“I have maybe got a little more experience, but it’s about knowing the game and knowing the game-plan and we can all do that. Making that European breakthrough is very important," he added.