When Adam Hastings deviated from the standard script that insists on focusing on one game at a time, to boldly assert that Glasgow Warriors were targeting 10 points from their two meetings with Edinburgh in December, his words were naturally seized upon by opposition head coach Richard Cockerill.

The young stand off was duly made to eat his words in the days that followed, his side failing to take so much as a losing bonus point from their two meetings with the men representing the city in which he grew up.

The 22-year-old, had more reason than most, then, to enjoy what has become a rare derby win for Glasgow and as he stood the other side of a glass door behind Cockerill as he addressed the media on Saturday evening Hastings savoured the moment, raising his arms theatrically in celebration.

“Personally, it was nice to get the monkey off my back,” he admitted.

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“I thought I lost that first game for us and played poorly over that Christmas period. It was really importance for me to get that win and me to go half decent.”

For all that Edinburgh’s victories either side of Christmas had ensured their retention of the 1872 Challenge Cup, the season’s third meeting between the neighbours had turned out to be the most important of them.

That, in turn, had made this an opportunity for the home side to start addressing long-standing failings, as a team that turns on the style when on top, but has too often failed when opponents have raised the intensity levels in matches that matter.

“That is what you play for,” said Hastings, who delivered six of the best on the night, hitting the target with every one of his shots at goal in registering 14 points in all.

“You play for these big games. It is always pleasing to come out on top. They have beaten us twice this season and they are the only team to beat us at home, so that was a big scalp for us.

“The first two games maybe they wanted it more. This time you saw a team hungry for it.

“It was awesome. We were so pleased with the way we played when we had the ball and we took our chances very well.”

If there was a rashness to his comments in December, he is now able to acknowledge that Glasgow’s form was not good enough to justify them at the time, while suggesting that it is far better now.

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“We had look at those two earlier derby games and wanted 10 points and obviously it did not happen,” he said.

“We were not playing well at the time. In recent few weeks you have seen a squad that is hungry and that showed against Edinburgh.”

Heading into the play-offs the whole squad should now have learned enough of the dangers of hubris, those defeats by Edinburgh having been followed by another in their biggest match of the season at Saracens in the Champions Cup quarter-final.

Saturday’s victory may have been their eighth in a row in the Pro14, the previous two victories having brought a win over Ulster, whom they are likely to meet in the semi-final and at Leinster, who are expected to reach the final at Celtic Park, but Hastings claimed that there is no danger of them getting carried away this time around.

“The best thing about us right now is we are staying firmly grounded,” he asserted.

“We have had three massive wins now and every week we have said we have to do it again.

“That will be the mindset going forward. It is knockout now and we have a potential two more games and we are there.”

To that end there is a need to remain self-critical and a comprehensive as Saturday’s win was, he immediately identified areas for improvement, noting that: “At the start of the second half I think we could have held onto the ball a bit more and built pressure.

“Off the back of that we ended up defending for a long time, but it was pleasing that we kept them out for a large chunk of the game.”