In the opening minutes, they asked all sorts of questions and eventually got a reward for their pressure.
The visitors gave away penalty upon penalty, each of them banged to touch by Glasgow. From the decisive lineout, Alex Samuel put it on a plate for Ben Afshar to whip round the back and find McDowall on the inside.
Dan Lancaster put over the conversion and Glasgow had the start that everybody thought they were getting.
What they hadn’t bargained on was Toulon – with a terrible record on the road this season – putting it up to them, not solely through their own ruthlessness but also because of Glasgow’s own flatness.
Drean scored his first after Toulon patiently and powerfully sucked in the Glasgow cover before hitting them out wide.
The home side then piled the heat back on, winning another raft of penalties, a run of ill-discipline that saw blindside Junior Kpoku binned.
It didn’t take Glasgow long to punish them, a beautiful floated pass from McDowall out to Smith getting the job done; 12-5 Glasgow.
If that was the cue for the Warriors to take hold of the game, then they missed their chance.
They have the best defensive record in the Champions Cup this season but, here, they were passive and vulnerable all of a sudden.
Toulon didn’t have to do anything flash to score again, just a lot of grunt and a lot of accuracy and Gros was over, Jaminet adding the conversion.
So the Kpoku sin-bin ended 7-5 to Toulon. Unlike Glasgow, that. And unlike them to concede again soon after, this time off a bungled Glasgow lineout and slick handling from the French.
When they worked it to Drean on the right wing, he stepped inside Lancaster and scored. Jaminet missed another conversion but his team led 17-12 nonetheless. Glasgow had problems.
Toulon conceded nine first-half penalties to Glasgow’s two, but when you score practically every time you enter the opposition 22 – as Toulon more or less did – then you’re in good shape.
Adam Hastings replaced Lancaster at the break and Glasgow got some joy pretty quickly, a lineout maul being driven over with Hiddleston at the bottom of it.
Hastings lashed over a lovely conversion and Glasgow had their nose in front again. Maybe now they could shake Toulon free?
No. A scrum 40m out, a Brex blast that took him past one defender and then another and now an arcing run that saw him go all the way to the line.
A sensational finish from a Toulon perspective, a lamentable defensive lapse when looked at through Glasgow eyes.
Another conversion was missed in the Scotstoun breeze and it was a three-point game again – in Toulon’s favour now.
That’s how it stayed and that was Glasgow’s European season done. Toulon march on against all expectations. Stunning.
