ON a dreich day at the start of November 1997, Gregor Townsend was in Northampton, Zander Fagerson was in his infancy, and Glasgow were in the doldrums. No-one currently involved with the side was a part of the set-up back then, when Leicester beat them 90-19 in the Heineken Cup quarter-final play-off at Welford Road, but the match has become part of the club’s folk memory.

It was a harsh demonstration of the gulf that Scottish teams would have to bridge to be competitive in the professional era, and it remains a record defeat for Glasgow. Townsend, who remembers the shock of hearing the result after playing for the Saints some 40 miles south, referred to it unprompted on Saturday after his Warriors side’s majestic 43-0 victory at the same venue had taken them into the quarter-finals of the premier European competition for the first time.

There were no such memories for Fagerson, who had yet to turn two at the time, but he too spoke of how far the team have travelled, and of how much Saturday’s triumph meant, in particular to those senior members of the squad who have striven for years to get to this point. “We came here with a game plan and we knew what we needed to do, and there was a lot of belief in the squad,” the tighthead prop said. “It’s been hard work for about five or six years and it all came together in that win.

“I’ve only been here two and a half, three years, and I’m trying to contribute as much as I can, but I’m nowhere near some of the other boys. Pat MacArthur, 150 games, he’s been here ten years nearly - this is his tenth season. So it was massive for him. He was good at talking this week and making sure the boys got buzzed up and knew what a big occasion it was.

“It was bigger than the club.The boys who weren’t playing, the guys who have retired - they’ll have been pretty proud of us getting into the quarter-finals as well. So it was massive. Really enjoyed it.

“There was belief the whole week - we always knew we could do it. We just needed a full, 80-minute performance, and to keep them to nil at home was absolutely unbelievable. Phenomenal.”

The days of hopelessly outclassed Scottish sides being swatted aside by foreign opposition may have long gone, but even in recent seasons Glasgow have come up short in big games when there was a knockout place at stake. The inability to do what Fagerson said and play from first to last has been part of the problem, as has inconsistency. The defeat by Munster in the previous round of Pool One matches showed that the Warriors can still fall short of their own high standards at times, but on Saturday, when it mattered most, they were magnificent.

Leicester pride themselves on the prowess of their pack, but Glasgow took them on up front, and in the backs too, with a display of creativity and continuity that has rarely been equalled by a Scottish team. The balance between hard slog and sleight of hand, perspiration and inspiration, is one of the hardest things to find in rugby, but the Warriors had it from the first minute.

They would plough through the phases relentlessly at times, gaining ground metre by metre. Then they would flick a switch, changing swiftly from grind to grandeur, and striking at the heart of a steadily demoralised Tigers defence.

As the man who calls the shots, Finn Russell was the key player in that respect, but Fagerson rightly pointed out that every man made a significant contribution. “I think it was a whole-team performance and the backs played their part as well. Our running game was class and we carried out our set-piece moves really well.”

Glasgow took the fight to the home team from kick-off, wrapped up the bonus point with four tries in the first half, which ended with them 31-0 up, and added two more tries in the second half. The pick of the six was the first, finished off by Tommy Seymour after 27 phases of inexorable advance. With Leicester down a man because of a sinbinning, a penalty try came next, then Mark Bennett and Jonny Gray got in on the act.

Ryan Wilson claimed the first try of the second half as the Warriors maintained their ruthless onslaught, then Tim Swinson, named man of the match for the second week running, got the last. Russell converted five of the six and added a penalty, and a measure of the Warriors’ determination was provided in the dying minutes when they held up a Leicester drive on their own try line long after such a score would have had no effect whatsoever on the outcome.

While the likes of Russell, Seymour and Stuart Hogg give Glasgow a crucial cutting edge, Townsend is convinced that the difference between the near misses of the last few years and this successful exit from the group stages is the improvement up front. “Two years ago we lost at Bath,” the coach said. “We scored two outstanding tries that day and played ambitious rugby, but we weren’t good enough in the set piece. We made big improvements in that area and I thought our set piece was outstanding here.”