GREGOR Townsend refused to blame Tim Swinson for Glasgow’s 19-15 defeat by Northampton yesterday, despite the fact that the forward was yellow-carded with just minutes to play when his team were in the lead.

The Warriors knew they had to win their remaining two Challenge Cup pool matches to have a realistic chance of reaching the last eight of the competition - against the Saints and then at home to Racing 92 on Saturday - and with time running out they appeared to have staged a successful fightback after the English team had taken the lead. But after Swinson saw yellow for throwing a punch, Northampton launched an attack that led to the winning score, preserving their hopes of going through to the quarter-finals as one of the three best runners-up from the five pools.

Townsend was proud of the character his team had shown in the game, and, while reluctant to criticise Swinson, said that the lock forward had blamed himself for the moment of indiscipline. “He feels like he let down the team,” the head coach said. “But we’ve got to make sure our discipline, whether in giving away penalties or looking after the ball, is better. There were a few occasions where we gave Northampton opportunities.

“Matt [Taylor, the defence coach], who was sitting beside me, saw it,” Townsend continued, referring to the Swinson incident. “I think it was a punch, so it’s out of character. It’s something that he’s really disappointed with. If someone’s grabbing him he has to just not punch anyone.

“Obviously losing a player is never great, but I don’t think that was the worst thing to happen. It was more that we looked like we were getting a penalty from our lineout drive - we were certainly into the Northampton half, so to turn it round and give away a penalty and suddenly have to defend a few phases was disappointing.

“We played with a really good effort throughout the team. We kept ball in attack, we took the game to Northampton, and I thought we defended really well. So it was much more like us, and to be leading for parts of the second half and in the 78th minute, it’s obviously very disappointing to lose the game. I have to say the players put in a huge effort.”

Townsend now thinks his team have a duty to their supporters to put in a big effort against group winners Racing when they meet at Rugby Park. “We know we’ll have to play really well to beat Racing. They’re up there with the best two or three teams in Europe. We’re looking forward to the game, it’s a new venue for us, new surface, and we want to show our supporters that we can play, we can build on the last two performances. This was better than Racing, and we’ll have to play well if we’re going to win.”

Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder had the pleasure of seeing his son Harry come off the bench to make his senior debut and score the winning try. “You’re behind,” he said. “You lose and you’re out of Europe. You win and you’re still fighting. For your son to score . . . I am pretty chuffed.”