'Everyone's gutted': Kyle Steyn offers update from inside heartbroken Glasgow camp

Glasgow’s hopes of an unlikely URC-European Champions Cup double may be over, but captain Kyle Steyn insists they must channel their energy into ensuring a season that promised so much doesn’t end in further disappointment.

Having won all their pool games with maximum points – including a stunning comeback victory over Toulouse – and prevailed in a dogged encounter against Bulls in the last-16, Warriors’ first home quarter-final, against Toulon, offered Franco Smith’s side a golden opportunity to reach their first semi-final, which would have been staged at Murrayfield.

But without their two leading scrum-halves in George Horne and Jamie Dobie and with four Scotland locks unavailable through injury, Glasgow were stretched in key areas and struggled to sustain their attacking flow and gain their usual dividends from the lineout maul against the French outfit, whose greater physicality, clinical finishing and dogged defence took them through to a Dublin semi against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.

“Everyone’s gutted,” said Scotland wing Steyn, after Glasgow’s 12-match winning streak at Scotstoun ended in a first defeat in almost a year. “It’s difficult not to reflect on what’s been put into this jersey this season and what that’s meant to everybody and how much hard work has gone in from players and coaches.

“We desperately wanted more for this campaign, and it’s not to be. I think that’s credit to Toulon because they’ve got that championship DNA and I think they showed it more consistently than we did.

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“We’ve been in this position before where this tournament’s ended for us and there’s lots of guys that have learned a good lesson. We’ve got a core of this group that’s been on this journey since Franco’s been here that understand what you need this time of year and now all the energy will be going into making sure we try our best to not let another chance slip by in the URC.”

Warriors have little time to lick their wounds. They are still four points clear at the top of the URC and eight points ahead of third-placed Ulster in the quest to secure a top-two finish and a home run through the knockout stages.

But they depart early on Tuesday for a two-game tour of South Africa featuring tough assignments against the Lions in Johannesburg next Saturday and the Stormers in Cape Town a week later.

Glasgow slipped out of the top two last season by losing their final three games of the regular season, leading to a tough semi-final loss away to Leinster, and must regroup swiftly if they are to remain on target to reclaim the title they won so memorably in 2024.

“I think if today showed you anything, the way the pool stage has gone and then the knockout today, you just don’t look further than the week ahead,” Steyn said.

“We’ve got the South Africa trip and then we come back to Cardiff (at home) and Ulster (away, in their final league game) and that’s what the message is going to be. It’s about putting everything into every week now and every training day, because we don’t want to feel like this again.

“We’ve got a good enough group that’s been through enough. We’ve lost to Toulon in knockout games before [a European Challenge Cup final in 2023] and we’ve learned lessons. As leaders, we’ll sit and look at how we try to adapt to that on the field and get ourselves back on track.

“There’s no point dwelling now on what the occasion did to us. It’s about making sure that we’re ready for next week first and foremost. Lions away is probably one of the toughest away games in the league, so we’ll take those learnings and turn them into energy for that game.

“It’s a really difficult tour. They’re difficult places to go and play, and that’s exactly what we need in the build-up for the (URC) knockout stages. It’s something we’ve learned under Franco that you take everything head-on. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”

Warriors will be further depleted for the South Africa trip with Smith revealing lock Max Williamson is facing four-to-six weeks out after damaging a medial collateral ligament in his knee, which forced his withdrawal from the match-day squad against Toulon.

With Alex Craig out until next season with a foot injury and Scott Cummings and Gregor Brown also currently unavailable, Glasgow only had hybrid ‘flock’ Euan Ferrie to deploy from the bench against Toulon, with Alex Samuel and Jare Oguntibeju their only fit specialist locks.

They will also travel to South Africa without Scotland flanker Rory Darge, whose partner is expecting their first child, while fly-half Adam Hastings, forced off late on against Toulon after taking a heavy blow to the jaw, may also miss the trip.

That could mean a summons to Matty Urwin, a 20-year-old fly-half with just one senior outing to his name, as back-up to Dan Lancaster, while centre Sione Tuipulotu also appeared to be struggling with a knock in the latter stages against Toulon.

“I try to learn a little bit from what happened with other teams in the competition who competed on two fronts,” added head coach Smith. “I’ve had a specific strategy now for the next two weeks. We’re not going to veer much off that.

“The benefit is that we’ll have a weekend off (2-3 May) when we come back. That’s not what we wanted, but now we have that. We will manage the boys properly in the next two weeks to achieve another objective.”