They may have had to wait a few months, but Glasgow Warriors avenged their two defeats to Connacht at the end of last season with gusto in a bonus point start to their new PRO12 season at the Sportsground.

This was a concerted team effort as everyone defended solidly, were quick off the line as a unit and they were ruthless in attack. Gregor Townsend and his management team couldn’t have planned this revenge mission any better.

“In sport you get a nice feeling when you win and you get a horrible feeling when you lose. When you lose your last game of the season, you will stew on it,” said Townsend.

“For someone like Jonny (Gray) who just played in two finals for us, he'd never lost at semi-final stage, it really hurt him. Even some of our new players like Simone Favaro said it's the biggest disappointment he's felt.

“So it shows how much they care about the club. It's great they can go, 'New season, new feeling from the Connacht dressing room.' And they've earned it.”

Apart for a scrum that struggled for the opening 30 minutes, Warriors were dominant in every facet of the game. They pilfered ball with regularity on the ground; the made a mess of Connacht’s lineout ball and executed slickly on their own; and took their chances when they came along. It was the perfect start for the 2015 champions.

There was a nice moment after the game as Connacht captain John Muldoon embraced Warriors’ forwards coach Dan McFarland. The pair had battled in Connacht’s trenches for years and McFarland had written the script for many Connacht epics in the past. His fingerprints were all over this win.

“Well I just gave him a little nudge in the shoulder and said: ‘Well done, I'm sure you'll be the happiest of the coaching group’,” said Townsend of his assistant.

“For him coming back, it was a long while before his first game over here and obviously with things going really well for Connacht, it was even tougher.

“Connacht were doing well but as a coach in the opposition, when you lose two games, he was gutted. So I'm very happy for Dan and especially the way that we played in terms of contact. That's his area.

“At the set-piece, I thought they put us under pressure in the first-half. We got better. For a couple of key scrums we were down to seven men we did well. In the second-half, we were getting on the front foot, not dominance but certainly we played well.”

After last season’s final flourish in Murrayfield, this was supposed to be Connacht’s homecoming. In their first game since that Grand Final win it didn’t take long for an eerie flatness to descent on the 6,063 in attendance.

A couple of early chances for Connacht went unclaimed. Their scrum held the upper hand and provided good platforms to attack from, but all the silky passes of last season didn’t stick this time.

Instead Glasgow, still smarting from the two losses in Galway to bookend their title defence, happily lapped up tackles, competed feverishly on the ground and struck efficiently when the chances came their way.

There was no doubt the hurt of last May fuelled this particular fire, but that passion was well directed – other than Ryan Wilson’s ugly lunge at Jack Carty, which drew a yellow card in the 29th minute – especially at the breakdown where Warriors ruled.

“We'll always looks at the breakdown as a massive area. Especially against Connacht when they've got guys like Nepia Fox-Matamua. He was unlucky a few times when he got to the ball.

“You've got Bundee Aki who's good over ball. John Muldoon's good over ball. The players knew that because they've played two times before against them so that was probably the most pleasing aspect.

“We work on passing a lot. I think a big thing for us was getting our attack shape into the game and we referred to the semi-final when we did get it into play, in the second-half we looked dangerous against Connacht, we knew we had to be more accurate with the ball.”

That accuracy allowed Tommy Seymour to cross twice in the first-half as Glasgow led by 13-5 at the interval, but by the hour mark they had ran in another three tries from Stuart Hogg, Tim Swinson and Sila Puafisi. Puafisi was sent off at the Sportsground last season, which didn’t help his side’s hopes of a home semi-final, so for him it was a sweet score.

At that stage it was non-stop, intense rugby from Warriors, so much so it was necessary to check the record books for Connacht’s biggest home defeat, although the rout stopped four points shot of that landmark when Sean Lamont scored number six nine minutes from time.

Scorers: Connacht: Try: Adeolokun (33). Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Seymour (11, 37), Hogg (46), Swinson (53), Puafisi (59), Lamont (71). Pen: Pyrgos (25). Cons: Pyrgos (47, 55), Clegg (72)

Scoring sequence: (Connacht first): 0-5, 0-8, 5-8, 5-13 (half time), 5-18, 5-20, 5-25, 5-27, 5-32, 5-34, 5-39, 5-41.

Connacht: C Kelleher; N Adeolokun, E Griffin (P Robb 55), B Aki, M Healy; J Carty (S O'Leary 66), C Blade (K Marmion 48); D Buckley (R Loughney 50), T McCartney (D Heffernan 61), F Bealham (JP Cooney 61); U Dillane (L Stevenson 61), D Qualter; E McKeon, N Fox-Matamua, J Muldoon (C) (J Connolly 72).

Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg (S Lamont 61); L Sarto, A Dunbar, S Johnson, T Seymour; P Horne (R Clegg 64), H Pyrgos (A Price 69); G Reid (R Grant 50), P MacArthur (C Flynn 50), Z Fagerson (S Puafisi 50); T Swinson, J Gray (C) (T Uanivi 69); R Harley, S Favaro (L Wynne 64), R Wilson (L Wynne 18-27, blood).

Referee: Ian Davies (WRU)