In the United Rugby Championship and the Champions Cup, Glasgow have won 11 of their 13 games and have landed a try bonus point in nine of them. Their consistency across two tournaments is new ground for them.
This is the first time Glasgow will be fighting on two fronts with realistic prospects in both competitions. That could bring its own pressures down the line, but right now it’s a buzz. Scotstoun was a special place to be on Sunday.
The last 16 is a veritable eternity away in the first week of April, but there is nothing for them to fear at home. If you were to go by seeding then the Bulls, Toulon and Leinster will be coming to Scotland to face them, all going perfectly. There’s many worlds between facing these sides at home rather than away.
“We always come out and we try and be brave, hold on to the ball and play from anywhere,” Horne said in the aftermath. The scrum-half was a buzz-bomb in that opening half, an unstoppable wee man among giants.
“You dream and you hope that you’re going to get four wins from four,” he said. “I think that’s the difference this year. We actually believe that.
“We’ve played two of the most successful teams in Europe over the past few years (or ever). And we’ve shown that, if we play our best, we can match them (or beat them handsomely).
“Look, going into the last 16, it’s knockout rugby. So we’ve got to keep being at our best and, yeah, just buzzing for it, to be honest.”
Glasgow came into this season on a bit of a downer. They’d lost Tom Jordan, a vital cog in their URC title win, Henco Venter, a fantastic leader and Seb Cancelliere, a fantastically versatile and consistent operator.
They’d exited Europe at the cruel hands of Leinster, who put 50 on them, before losing their URC crown in another comprehensive defeat in Dublin in the semi-final.
They were supposed to be in decline. They were meant to slowly fade away, their players departing and their results diminishing.
But Smith has reinvented things. He’s brought through a new wave. Nobody imagined this, not in the wildest of dreams.
Glasgow are contenders. Smith is just going to have to get used to carrying that weight of expectation and exhilaration.
