If there was any logic behind sporting affections and affiliations, Glasgow Warriors fans should have been cracking open the Dom Perignon at Scotstoun on Saturday evening, taking gleeful sips between scattering lotus petals in the paths of their players and coaches and penning letters of grateful thanks to the club's Murrayfield paymasters.

After all, the Warriors' 19-16 victory over the Ospreys had cemented their place at the top of the Guinness PRO12 table, where they have now opened up a four-point lead over all the other sides. The finishing straight throws up some daunting challenges - their fixture list is significantly harder over that stretch than it was last year - but it is always better to be at the front of the pack when you come round the final bend. And this with a double-digit number of players unavailable due to international call-ups.

Long-serving - and formerly long-suffering - supporters of the side can too easily recall the days when Glasgow bounced along the bottom of the league. Not that much bounce was obvious in season 2005-06, when they finished plum last, or even as recently as 2011, when they ended up 11th of the 12 teams taking part, kept off the floor only by the wretched Aironi. Starved of investment, they haemorrhaged players on an annual basis. Whenever they seemed to be making progress, their impecunious circumstances ensured that it would quickly be snuffed out.

That bleak backdrop ought to have added to the sum total of human happiness at Scotstoun. Instead, however, there was something unsettling in the atmosphere, a nervous note in the cheers of the Glasgow fans. They could hardly fail to be satisfied watching their team beat a side that used to live on another financial planet, but you could almost sense the anxiety that these heady times might be coming to an end.

And the reason is simple. For all that Glasgow have performed wonders in developing such home-grown talent as Mark Bennett, Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Adam Ashe, they have been lifted to a different level by judicious overseas signings. Sean Lineen brought in a few lemons in his time, but he found a good 'un when he persuaded DTH Van der Merwe to become a Warrior. Gregor Townsend's strike rate has been rather better, with Niko Natawalu, Leone Nakarawa, Sean Maitland and Josh Strauss all outstanding for the club.

But times are a-changing. Maitland, Matawalu and Van der Merwe are all heading for pastures new at the end of this season. It is a natural process, of course, and more understandable still when players do not have deep roots in the country they are leaving, but as they watch the to-ing and fro-ing of talent at Glasgow it is understandable that fans should feel a certain concern that there has been a lot more fro than to just lately.

In fairness, Townsend has been a canny market operator. He has shown a gift for spotting undervalued talent and most of the players he has brought in have left with heftier price tags around their necks. It is far from impossible that he will pull off the same trick again.

But it is the time of the year when you have to throw supporters a bone. The recruitment of Simone Favaro from Treviso last week was a start, but while the Scotstoun exit door has been spinning on its hinges, the entrance has been worryingly quiet. Reports suggest that Salford Red Devils full-back Kevin Locke is being lined up for a cross-code switch - there was also interest last year - and there may well be a flurry of activity at the end of the Super Rugby season, but it is signatures the Warriors fans want to see, not rumours.

The club has made huge strides since the dark days. Aside from anything that has happened in the coaching and playing spheres, the move to Scotstoun has been a riotous success. It would be a desperate outcome if they took a backward step now.

AND ANOTHER THING

Grateful thanks to all who took the trouble to write in response to my comments last week about refereeing standards and the mess that is the current law book. There is clearly a massive groundswell of concern about the way rugby, and Test rugby in particular, is being run. At the same time, it is also hugely heartening to know that so many people want to see the game put right.

There was also a characteristically pertinent note from Glasgow Hawks media czar Alex Gordon, who picked up on my points about the improbable number of Irish referees in the game today. For reasons best known to himself, Alex took himself off to the Netherlands last weekend for the host nation's Low Countries derby clash with Belgium (which the Dutch lost 21-23). Filing his despatch, Alex noted, albeit without any great expression of surprise, that the referee and both touch judges were Irish.

AND FINALLY

Jedburgh could be a very quiet place on Sunday afternoon as a good proportion of the town's residents head up to Murrayfield to watch Jed Thistle take on Highland in the final of the Under 18 National Youth League Cup.

Jed Thistle are the defending champions, a remarkable achievement from a community of barely 4000 souls. But not half as remarkable as the fact that the Scotland Under 18 selectors have completely overlooked the side for a second year running. As usual, Scotland's private schools were heavily represented in the national U18 squad announced recently; not one Jed Thistle player was chosen.

They are rightly proud of their lads in Jedburgh. And they are rightly indignant about this shocking lack of recognition.