If there really is a correlation between gain and pain in professional sport then Glasgow Warriors should be set to make massive strides after being made to relive their latest failed effort to win a first ever Champions Cup quarter-final.
After conceding seven tries in losing 56-27 to English champoions Saracens international play-maker Adam Hastings indicated that it had been as hard for the players to watch on Monday as it had been for their supporters two days earlier.
“We’ve got to go through the game, which is painful at the best of times. It’s not easy, but you’ve got to go and watch all the stuff and learn from it, which we have done. Take a lesson from it, but ultimately we’ve got to put it behind us now,” he said.
On a weekend that saw the other three Champions Cup quarter-finals decided by a single score, he accepted that the scale of their defeat
“I think frustration’s one thing (and) of course we’re embarrassed,” said Hastings.“At the end of the day we got absolutely hammered.”
READ MORE: Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill reckons big men must not act like bairns
The experience was made all the worse because the Glasgow players mistakenly believed they had weathered a storm in the opening period.
“At half-time we felt like when we went inside to the sheds we’d managed to get a foothold back in the game,” said Hastings.“We kicked two penalties to get back to within I think it was nine points, then we nearly scored at the end (of the half) - we were right on their line and got bundled into touch.“If we’d kicked another three there or even scored we were right back in that game. I think the most disappointing thing was the way we came out in the second half and they just were kind of all over us for 20 minutes. We just didn’t have any ball. We spoke about it as a back line. We barely touched it in the first 20 minutes of the second half.”
However the youngster displayed the self-belief that is characteristic of his family in expressing confidence that they will respond the right way.
“I don’t think it knocks you off your stride. If anything, it just hammers home that losing feeling after a game,” he said “We were knocked out of a competition and you don’t want to feel that again, so ultimately we don’t want to lose again this season. We want to win that (Pro14) trophy.”
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 here