HENRY Pyrgos believes that Glasgow Warriors’ season should be seen as a relative success despite their almost-certain failure to reach the PRO12 play-offs for the first time in six years. While accepting that some of his team’s league performances had been frustrating, the scrum-half thinks that their reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup has to be seen as a significant milestone

“I think it’s been a great year in terms of getting through in Europe,” the Scotland international said when asked if this campaign amounted to a backwards step for Glasgow. “Obviously we haven't won anything, and getting to the quarter-final doesn't get you a trophy, but as a marker for the club it was huge. It was great to see so many fans go down [to Saracens]. It's frustrating, because we want to be playing in the semi-final.

“First and foremost, you want to do well in the league. It's frustrating, the position we're in at the moment; it's not in our hands.

“Every year, the focus is being in the top four and even the top two because you want a home semi. This year, qualifying for Europe was amazing, but we didn't go on and play as well as we can in that quarter-final, although Saracens played really well.”

Glasgow underperformed on the day at Allianz Park, losing 38-13, but Pyrgos is convinced that the experience will stand the team in good stead in the seasons to come. Firstly, because they now know what it takes to reach the knockout stages in Europe’s premier competition, but also because they have a concrete awareness of just how tough it is to get beyond the quarter-final, and just how well a team has to play to have a chance of doing so.

“I think it will be a massive driver to get to the quarter-finals [again],” the 27-year-old said of that defeat by the reigning English and European champions. "We didn't play well enough on the day and Saracens were a lot better. If we get in that situation again we just have to make sure we turn up and play as well as we can to give ourselves a better opportunity of going through. Going further in Europe over the next couple of years will be a huge driver for us.

“Every year you start afresh. You're in there with the 20 best teams in Europe, so it can be hard to get out of your group. If you get to the quarter-finals you have to take it from there.”

While the Warriors’ interest in the Champions Cup is over, they still have at least two games to play in the PRO12 - away to Leinster on Friday evening, then at home to Edinburgh a week on Saturday. If they win both games with bonus points and an improbable sequence of results elsewhere go their way, they will be in the semi-finals. Realistically, however, Pyrgos is thinking of the two coming games as tough contests in their own right, and said the squad had not wasted time hypothesising about their chances of making the play-offs.

“We haven't talked a lot about that, to be honest. We've got a big challenge against Leinster away, where we haven't won for five years, I think. But we’re very excited. We want to go there and finish the season as well as we can. Whatever happens, happens, but we want to go there and win.

“I don't know about pride - whenever you play you just want to play really well regardless of the situation you're in. There are loads of different things at stake for us. There are guys who are going away with the Lions, with Scotland, younger guys playing to push their claims for next season. There are lots of things to play for.

I've been fortunate to play at Leinster a couple of times in the past, and it’s a great place to play rugby. The RDS is a great venue and obviously they’re a quality opposition. If selected, it will be great to be involved. It will be a big challenge for us.”

And, whatever happens against Leinster and Edinburgh, there will be a big challenge next season too for Glasgow - to learn how to deal with being one of the big teams who are there to be shot at by the others, and to become that little bit sharper and ensure that they win the tight games that have slipped out of their grasp during this campaign. “Obviously, we’ve had a great couple of years,” Pyrgos added. “When you do well, teams target you, and they’re coming at you all the time. We've seen that over the past couple of years and the standard in the league has been very high.

“We found it tough to beat the top teams. We’re just going to have to work really hard in pre-season. There will be a lot of motivation from not getting to where we wanted to get. We’ll want to come back harder, and push on again next season.”