ON paper, this was just a Glasgow Warriors second string being taken apart by a Welsh side with many fewer players missing because they were on international duty. In practice, it was a lot more worrying for both Glasgow Warriors and Scotland.

The fact is that the Glasgow Warriors forwards, where most of the questions should have been did their job even though as the club had to dip so deep into their available resources that they had to give Jamie Bhatti, the Melrose prop, a debut off the bench. The problems were in what they did with the ball, in particular in the first half, and that came down to the back division with a sprinkling of Test hopefuls.

There was plenty of hustle and bustle but no penetration as Glasgow won the territory and possession battle by 68-32 margin. Four of the backs on display had newly returned from the Scotland camp – five if you include Nick Grigg who came off the bench in the second half – but with passes going astray and no real pattern to their game, all that ball was squandered.

"We train a lot together we played a lot of games and we trained really well this week," said Gregor Townsend, the head coach. "I think we just overran things and a couple of guys tried to make up for mistakes as well – that is when more mistakes happen. It was not fluent. On a couple of occasions when we got breakaways in the second half, we let go of the ball. It was not a great night for us."

They managed to find themselves trailing 7-3 at the break despite bossing the first half, so when the game swung to a more even contest after the break, Glasgow had no chance. The only relief for Townsend, was that at least they did not concede that bonus-point fourth try.

Still, the result knocks them out of the immediate battle for the top two places and right into the five-way fight below that where four points separates second from seventh, with Edinburgh a distant eighth despite Friday night's win over Ulster.

"I thought we were starting to get into our rhythm by the last 10 minutes of the first half," said Townsend. "We were starting to build some phases and apply some pressure in the right areas of the field. The possession and territory stats were in our favour and we were 7-1 on the penalty count as well. Having had that pressure, we needed to put more points on the board.

"We expected to build on that first half so we were very disappointed that there was a try early on through good individual attack and good support play but, from our perspective, also poor defence. That made it tough. We did not play well after that, there were a lot of errors and we also had to adjust to two yellow cards."

Playing 20 minutes a man short certainly did not help their attempts at a comeback but after having had so much control they should never have been behind in the first place with the two soft tries givng Scarlets the lead.

The first Welsh try started with a breakout from the home 22 as Glasgow lost control of the ball, Will Boyde, the Scarlets No8, finished the move; the second came after Rhys Patchell, the fly half, had been allowed to wander through the Glasgow ranks untouched as he ran back a kick – this time Jonathan Evans, the scum, half, finished.

Add a second Boyde try at the back of a maul when Glasgow were down a man and the home side had the result under control long before the end.

The kindest interpretation of what went on was that Glasgow may have been victims of their own success. They had 16 players in the Scotland training camp that occupied the first half of he week and another three invited to train alongside the main group.

Only seven of that 19 were able to play in this game, and having got back only two days before the match, the disjointed play and miscommunication might have been inevitable.

"It is tough for them but I thought they put in a lot of effort," said Townsend. "We will be better for the experience, this team is going to play together another two games – that was the first time it has played together. I am sure the team will be better with another two weeks training before they have a big test against the Ospreys."

With so many involved he did not have the luxury of copying Wayne Pivac, his opposite number with the Scarlets, who had been planning to field John Barclay until he saw the state his player was in when he arrived back from the Scotland camp.

"The Scotland boys had been through a rigorous few days, so he needed a break," Pivac explained. "He had only taken part in the captain's run so we put him on the bench with a view to only using him if we had to. We needed to keep him fresh, he has a Test match next week – hopefully."

Scarlets: Tries: Boyle (15, 53), J Evans (41).. Cons: Patchell 3. Pens: Patchell 2.

Glasgow Warriors: Pen: Horne. (32)

Scoring sequence (Scarlets first): 7-0, 7-3 (half time, 14-3, 17-3, 24-3, 27-3.

Scarlets: A Thomas; DTH van der Merwe (G Owen, 41), S Hughes, H Parkes (C), S Evans; R Patchell (D Jones, 64), J Evans (A Davies, 64); W Jones (sin bin: 25-35, D Evans, 72), R Elias (E Phillips, 64), W Kruger (P Edwards, 71), T Price (L Rawlins, 57), D Bulbring, A Shingler, J Davies, W Boyde (D Evans, 26-35).

Glasgow Warriors: P Murchie; L Jones (N Grigg, 58), M Bennett, S Johnson (R Clegg, 67), R Hughes; P Horne, A Price (G Hart, 66); D Sears-Duru (J Bhatti, 52), P MacArthur (sin bin: 49-59), C Flynn, 59), S Puafisi (D Rae, 52), T Swinson, B Alainu’uese (sin bin: 61-71, M Fagerson, 71), R Harley (C), S Favaro (C Flynn, 57-59), L Wynne (L Haupeakui, 57).

Referee: G Conway (Ireland)

Attendance: 6,059