AS one merciless week rolls into the next during this most gruelling season rugby has ever known, Glasgow Warriors are in the process of regrouping, recalibrating and trying to re-energise after last Saturday’s demoralising last minute loss to the Dragons, ahead of taking on joint English and European title-holders Exeter Chiefs at their Sandy Park fortress in the opening round of the Champions Cup this coming Sunday afternoon.

Warriors have managed just two wins from eight matches played so far in their 2020-21 Guinness PRO14 campaign, and proved against the Dragons that there are always new ways of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory when stand-off Brandon Thomson sclaffed a last-minute conversion from in front of the posts, which would have secured a much-needed, morale-boosting win had it been successful.

The squad is clearly in desperate need of an injection of positive energy, and co-captain Ryan Wilson says the players know that this will have to come from within.

“I reckon this is easily my toughest time at the club,” he conceded. “We were dealt some pretty tough cards, but we’ll get through it. We just need to go down there, execute our game-plan and be disciplined.

“Everyone wants to test themselves against the best and, from their titles they won last year, Exeter are currently the best, so it’s exciting to go down there and play a huge team.

“It’s probably come at the right time for us in a new competition – it’s almost like a fresh start. We’ve always spoken about European Cup weeks and how there’s always an extra buzz around the stadium. There’s a slightly different feel to it.

“The international boys are back now so it’ll be a very different team that’s out there on Sunday in terms of experience and knowledge,” he added. “So, we’ll go down there with the confidence we had when we started the season.”

While Wilson recognises that the Autumn Nations Cup did not end the way Scotland would have liked against Ireland last weekend, he is in no doubt about the boost which will come from having experienced leaders such as Fraser Brown, Scott Cummings and Ali Price back in the Warriors squad, and desperate to right a few wrongs.

“It is a huge boost to our leadership group,” he stressed. “I lean on them more than anything. Probably my biggest part will be in the changing room before the game trying to get the boys fired up.

“But, listen, you don’t need to do a huge amount when you are going down to play a side like Exeter – it’s not too hard to get the boys going – so it is more about the knowledge these guys bring.

“The Scottish boys maybe didn’t have the best result or the performance they wanted last weekend, but they’ve been building nicely, so those guys coming back in will definitely offer a lot to us. Just having them on the field in training is great, in terms of the energy and knowledge they bring. There’s a good feeling around at the moment."

It would be a huge upset if Warriors were to topple Chiefs, who have started this season as they finished the last, having marched to three victories on the bounce with an average winning margin of just under 30 points – but there is no magic recipe for success, it is just about doing the simple things well.

“We’ve killed ourselves recently with our discipline, especially against the Dragons when I think we gave away seven penalties in the second half, which puts us under so much pressure," explained Wilson.

“When you’re playing against one of the biggest teams in Europe like Exeter, they’re going to be looking for us to make errors there, so that they can put us back in our 22 and get into the forward play they’re so good at, so we need to make sure we don’t play into their hands.

“With the aggression side of things, we want that to be as high as it can be before you cross the line, but the discipline I’m more talking about is the silly penalties throughout the game. Some of the stuff with the kick-chase, taking players in the air and so on … we need to be better there.”