GIVEN the problems which have confronted Glasgow over the past month, Danny Wilson was justified in feeling relatively pleased after the first 1872 Cup match of the season.

Only relatively – after all, they lost 10-7 to Edinburgh to fall further off the pace in the PRO14, and were arguably fortunate to pick up a losing bonus point.

But, after a 42-0 defeat in their last game, not to mention four positive Covid tests, multiple self-isolations and a debilitating run of injuries, the head coach was able to regard this game as modest but unmistakable progress.

“In our last game against Exeter we didn’t fire any shots, but we did fire shots against Edinburgh,” Wilson said. “We played some rugby and that’s important to us.

“We wanted to come here and play, fire some shots, and I thought we did that. We played a better brand of rugby than we had in the last two games and we certainly tested Edinburgh.

“We got some dominance at the line-out and got dominated in the scrums, so those two things probably evened themselves out. But tight games come down to tight situations and we came out on the wrong side of a couple of those situations, including again a lack of discipline.

“Soft penalties led to us being camped in the wrong areas of the pitch. We certainly gave them a few penalties from scrums. It was more the penalties away from the scrum that were the frustration for me. We had 12 outside the scrum and another four in it, which gave them a foothold. But there were some really good sets of defence, especially when we were camped on our own line and turned them over a few times.

“Ultimately it’s a loss, even if we pick up a losing bonus point away from home, which is something. We need to turn a better performance this week into an even better performance next week which will hopefully give us the right result at Scotstoun.”

If the Warriors once again failed to play with the fluidity in attack which has long been a hallmark of their game at its best, there was a simple explanation. That Champions Cup match against Exeter last month was the first time Wilson had his international contingent back following the Autumn Nations Cup, and hopes that more time together would produce a swift improvement in form were dashed when the Covid situation forced their next two games to be postponed. In other words, there has been no continuity for the coaching staff to work with.

“What I’m finding the biggest challenge is that you don’t roll on from week to week and build,” Wilson admitted. “I’m looking forward to getting the Covid situation done and dusted and getting all the international fixtures done so we can say, this is our squad and we can build.

“There are challenges like no other, then on top of that we get the Covid outbreak. It’s been a difficult time, but it will lead to us being stronger, make us more resilient. There will be long-term gains, but there is short-term pain and we’ve all got to man up and fight through it.”