THERE is no real mystery as to why Glasgow Warriors and Bath have made a habit of producing high-octane, exciting matches whenever they meet.

As Rob Harley, the Glasgow flanker, points out, when you get two teams committed to fast, open rugby in the way these two are, you can expect sparks to fly.

On a personal level, Harley has encountered mixed fortunes against Bath, featuring in the starting XV in two matches three seasons ago. Although he thoroughly enjoyed the bizarre ending to the home game - despite missing out on a score - Harley has fewer fond memories of the away game, even though he did get over the line on that occasion.

The home tie was one of those extraordinary games in which either side could have sealed victory at the death. Tom Heathcote, now at Edinburgh, kept Bath in the game with his kicking and Stephen Donald, fresh from slotting the points which won the Rugby World Cup for New Zealand, had added his pennyworth on his club debut with a penalty after 78 minutes to put Bath 21-19 ahead.

With the time it took to kick off again, the match had ticked past the 80-minute mark when Duncan Weir went for a drop goal, only to see a Bath player get a hand to it - stopping the kick but also putting the entire Glasgow pack onside.

"It was an incredible finish," said Harley. "Once the drop goal got blocked it was just chaos. Their full-back [Nick Abendanon] was clearly favourite to get the ball but it took the craziest bounce back towards Richie [Gray] as he was rushing in. I was actually right behind Richie [when he went for the try] and if he didn't score, I was having it. I was just pleased he got it down."

The return match was not quite as enjoyable for Harley, even though he was able to score - "I don't know how much credit I can take. Stuart Hogg scooped up the ball on halfway, beat a couple of players and then off-loaded to me and I just had to run the last 10 metres and fall over" - but two late penalties from Donald were enough to secure the points for the English side.

The losing bonus was still enough to secure second place in the pool, Glasgow's best finish since the first year of the tournament, having gone into the game with an outside chance of getting one of the three places in the Challenge Cup which were reserved for second-place teams. In the event none of the results Glasgow needed to go their way did so and, since they lost, they ended up with nothing. "We've always had good, entertaining games against them, they want to play a brand of rugby and attack from deep, that's the style of the two teams. It's never one of those games where there are kicks to touch all the time," said Harley.

"We're both trying to play fast, open rugby. We put a big emphasis in our squad about being able to play at high speed in everything we do. That shows in the way we play when we get those half-breaks, offloads go in and guys flood through in support. I think the emphasis pays off in having guys who can go at high speed, break tackles and get support runners."

Before those two games, there had been the incredible "Ruaridh Jackson game" in 2008 when he exploded into the Warriors side, grabbing a try and helping lay on three more for Thom Evans, as well as two other matches in which Bath needed scores in the final 10 minutes to secure victory.

By yesterday morning, Glasgow were reporting that only about 100 seats and a few standing spots were still available for Saturday's European Champions Cup match with Bath, making it almost certain to be a sell-out crowd.

"Home games are more important than ever," Harley added. "We're going to have a great crowd. Since I've been here we haven't progressed beyond the group stages in Europe, so that's a major goal for the squad."