As well as being warmed by a spot of winter sunshine, Rob Harley is looking forward to tasting a dish best served cold in Treviso this evening, and he does not mean a tomato and mozzarella salad.
The Glasgow Warriors flanker was in the team that made up for last season's home defeat at the hands of the Italian side by winning at the Stadio Monigo to help clinch their place in last season's RaboDirect Pro12 play-offs.
He has not, though, forgotten the way these opponents took the shine off one of his, and his team's, greatest performances a week after they had claimed the first win by a Warriors side in Dublin.
"I was captain last year when Treviso came to Firhill and beat us, so there's a bit of personal revenge to get by winning over there," Harley said. That had been a landmark for Treviso – their first away win in the league which, Harley believes, provided evidence of the growing quality of the competition.
"It was a demonstration of the improvements they have made and we know now that, every week, teams are going to come at us," he said. "The league is very, very tight."
Harley's first start since he suffered knee ligament damage in the first game of the season comes too late to make a case for Scotland selection for the man who may have saved the job of the Scotland head coach Andy Robinson by marking his Test debut with a last-ditch, match-winning try in Samoa in June.
Robinson has said he has only selected a squad for the opening autumn Test against the All Blacks and could bring other players in for the subsequent meetings with South Africa and Tonga, but Harley will not allow himself to be distracted by such considerations.
"I was pretty realistic about [not being included], knowing I've not had the game time to challenge when the standard among the back row is very high," he said. "I'll not really be thinking about that. I'll be concentrating fully on what I can do for Glasgow and, if we get wins in the next two weeks, we'll put ourselves in the best possible position."
Harley was talking about the club's league placing as they aim to improve on third spot, but a reminder of how quickly things can change on the international scene was provided this week with the inclusion of so many of his colleagues in Robinson's squad.
Among them were five uncapped players in Alex Dunbar, Peter Horne, Peter Murchie, Henry Pyrgos and Tommy Seymour who, like the flanker, were just beginning to make their names while the World Cup squad was in New Zealand last year and he is delighted for them. "It was good to see a number of our backs getting into the squad," Harley said. "It's exciting and I think the guys are being rewarded for their performances."
Glasgow have won their last four PRO12 matches, two of them on the road, in Swansea and Cardiff. While Harley enjoyed his first taste of playing at Scotstoun as a replacement against Ulster in the Heineken Cup last weekend, he is not heartbroken to be travelling again.
"Obviously it is a huge advantage to be at home – when I came on last week, I felt the crowd were really boosting our efforts with the noise they were making – but the good thing about heading for Italy this week is that it was below freezing in Glasgow this morning so we can look forward to the conditions over there."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article