Stuart Hogg was hoping to provide the inspiration to his team-mates on his first appearance of the season and he was still at it long after the final whistle had gone at Scotstoun on Saturday.

The two-time British & Irish Lions full-back had scored his team’s first try and given the scoring pass for their second in the course of their ultimately comprehensive 34-18 defeat as Leinster offered the latest reminder of the vast difference that exists between meeting Irish provinces in the domestic Pro14 and doing so in the European Champions Cup.

Hogg naturally admitted to being exhausted but also bitterly disappointed following his exertions, then, Glasgow once again having no answers once their opponents opted to turn to the power game, just as had been the case in Exeter the previous weekend. The maximum possible margin of 10 points now separates them from the top of the table as a consequence and it is not just any team that has that advantage over them.

Only Toulouse – who are in absentia this time around – have more experience than three time winners Leinster of going the distance in a top flight European campaign. The Irish province may conceivably still be catchable by the English champions and Vern Cotter’s Montpellier, but they already look beyond Glasgow’s reach.

Hogg was, however, able to draw upon his now considerable experience, which includes being part of the first Glasgow team to reach the knockout stages in 20 years when they did so earlier this year, in seeking to sustain hope.

“Bath qualified out of our pool a couple of years ago after losing their first two games. We need a lot to go our way, but we’ve got the boys who are more than capable of qualifying. It’s all in our hands,” he asserted.

“We are not looking at anyone else. We’ve made it tough for ourselves but we’re going to give it a roll and hopefully give ourselves a chance.”

In purely arithmetic terms Hogg was quite right to point towards that 2014/15 competition as evidence of what might yet be achieved, but in competitive terms it only served as a reminder of his team’s inability down the years to adapt when opponents deny them the chance to play their preferred high tempo game. The team Bath found themselves nine points rather than 10 points behind on that occasion you see, was Glasgow, the English club having been caught on the hop at Scotstoun in the opening match before, adding extra intrigue to what is to come, Glasgow then went to Montpellier and won, while Bath were losing in Toulouse.

From that point Bath went through the gears and won all four of their remaining matches to edge out Toulouse, Glasgow winning just one more in finishing, as they have in all bar one of the past five seasons, in the bottom half of their pool.

Contained within Hogg’s responses is, meanwhile, the heart of the matter for this season at least. They may well have the players who can deal with that type of directness on their books, but on the evidence of the past two weekends, those who were on the pitch – in particular in the front-row – are not among them.

That is not to say Glasgow were overwhelmed in the set-piece, but their inability to prevent Exeter and Leinster from generating momentum when driving from lineouts in their 22 has been match transforming in both instances.

Rarely has confidence in a pack’s superiority been expressed more blatantly than by the swaggering Jonny Sexton when he turned down the shot at goal that would have given Leinster a half-time lead in favour of sending a kick to touch that landed just inside Glasgow’s 22, but which he was rightly confident would allow his pack to let him turn into seven points. A second try for Cian Healy, as Glasgow once again saw an early lead overturned by the interval, just as they had in the West Country, was the game’s decisive moment.

Glasgow had a chance to respond immediately after the interval but the indiscipline which has also blighted them over the opening weekends of the Champions Cup, cost them their opportunity, in stark contrast to the clinical way in which the hard-to-like, but superbly combative Sexton finished things off to score Leinster’s third just a couple of minutes into the half.

The home side did manage to earn themselves a lifeline with the try Hogg presented to Tommy Seymour, then Finn Russell’s second penalty to get back within a score. However Sexton’s last act was to reinstate his side’s second try and the way that Noel Reid was allowed to indulge in a spot of Duckhamesque seventies-style rugby in collecting the ball on the Glasgow 22 late in the game, then swerve and step his way untouched to the line.

In terms of the weekend schedules that score was a taster of what was to follow on Saturday evening on the ‘Strictly’ dance floor as Lein’s men were allowed to make it 10. A reputation for being nice to watch and nice to play was the motivation for Glasgow’s change of approach more than a decade ago and the popularity they have more recently generated for the entertainment value they provide should not blind anyone to the need to get basic technique right if they want to compete with the best of their rivals.