A stunning result and a valediction for Glasgow, who lived up to their status as one of the top seeds in the European Rugby Champions Cup with a performance of verve, pace, ambition and hard-nosed rugby intelligence.

They were up against a Bath side who have been making waves in the Aviva Premiership in recent weeks - and they simply blew them away.

More stunning still, they did it with the sort of style and bravado that Bath were meant to bring to the contest. But while Glasgow glistened with self-belief, off-loaded and ran the angles that have been their trademark for the past couple of seasons, Bath looked leaden and bereft of ideas. Barring a couple of solo breaks, and a semi-revival in the third quarter, the much-vaunted Bath backs were all but anonymous.

In some quarters, this will still be seen as a disaster for Bath rather then a triumph for Glasgow, but that would be a gross disservice to Gregor Townsend's side. Even at the scrum, an area of potential weakness, Glasgow had the upper hand, while in every other area they simply blew Bath off the pitch. They were sharper and faster and smarter, and their haul of five tries only begin to hint at their superiority. Glasgow have frozen on big occasions in the past, but they were at boiling point for long periods of this game. They had three tries on the board by half time, could easily have had another just afterwards, but then pulled away in the closing stages to claim their bonus point and hammer home their superiority.

Henry Pyrgos was magnificent at scrum-half, but he had able support all around. The Glasgow back row blasted their Bath counterparts at the breakdowns, while the Glasgow strike runners tortured the Bath defence throughout. Stuart Hogg played with selflessness and maturity, qualities not always obvious in his game, while Tommy Seymour was outstanding, comfortably the best outside back on the pitch until a knee injury forced him off at half time. All this in front of a packed Scotstoun crowd, where the "sold- out" notices had gone up hours before the game. Glasgow have already raised the capacity to close to 7000, and may have to think of taking it higher. There was a fear that the Warriors may have peaked last season, but this result was right up there with the best they have delivered.

The rout began when Mark Bennett thundered over for their opening try after 11 minutes. It came from Glasgow's first serious and sustained attack, and it involved a sublime finish as the centre took the ball at speed and changed direction quite brilliantly. He had Micky Young and Kyle Eastmond wrapped round him as he crossed between the sticks, but neither could arrest his momentum.

Sloppily, Glasgow coughed up a soft score almost instantly when Hogg failed to gather a kick by Ford and Jonathan Joseph raced off unopposed for their try. Bath had already collected a penalty through George Ford after four minutes, but perhaps the most astonishing aspect of the game was that the fly-half's conversion would be their last impact on the scoreboard.

A couple of Weir penalties kept things clicking for Glasgow before Sean Maitland became the next to cross the Bath line, racing over in the right corner in the 29th minutes. The score had been created by a superb catch-and-collect by Seymour, and the left-winger got his own reward a few minutes before the break when he bundled over after a clever free-kick ruse by Pyrgos.

The television match official ruled out the 44th minute Chris Fusaro touchdown that would have brought the bonus point for Glasgow, and they then endured a few anxious moments of their own as Bath made much of the running in the early stages of the second half. But the steam seemed to go out of Bath near the line, never more damagingly than when lock Stuart Hooper knocked on just a few inches short after 54 minutes. From that point on, Glasgow took control again.

Niko Matawalu replaced Pyrgos just after the hour mark, and soon made his presence felt. When Tim Swinson pinched the ball at a breakdown near halfway, he sent Matawalu off and running.

A few seconds later, the Fijian was over the line and Glasgow had their four-try bonus. Ten minutes from the end, Bennett chased after a kick-ahead by DTH van der Merwe to claim the Warriors' fifth touchdown.