In a campaign which had promised so much, both in the URC and the Champions Cup, this was a sorry way for the curtain to fall on Glasgow Warriors’ season.
The agony of a one-point defeat was etched all over Franco Smith’s face at full-time.
The Glasgow head coach was slumped in his chair, head in his hands, probably wondering how on earth his team had thrown it all away.
The sense of crushing disappointment was impossible to avoid as Glasgow conspired to blow an 18-point lead in this URC semi-final against the Bulls at Murrayfield.
Smith’s men had been rampant in scoring three tries inside the opening 25 minutes, racing into a 21-3 lead. Incredibly, they would not score another point thereafter.
In the loss to Toulon in the Champions Cup quarter-finals at Scotstoun a couple of months ago, Glasgow failed to fire a shot.
Klopper crosses over to score the Bulls’ third try as the South Africans beat Glasgow by a point
Warriors centre Sione Tuipulotu is dejected after Glasgow blew a 21-3 lead to lose 22-21
Here, they came out all guns blazing for 25 minutes, then pointed the guns at their own feet and refused to stop firing for the remainder of the match.
In front of a crowd of 17,981 at Murrayfield, they lost their nerve during a second half when they could barely keep hold of the ball or get out of their own half.
Masters of their own downfall, their discipline was completely shot as they gave away umpteen penalties, albeit some of the decisions from Irish referee Andrew Brace looked dubious at best.
But Glasgow need not blame the referee for this. They blew it, plain and simple. Given that they would have held home advantage at Murrayfield in the final, they will never get a better chance to win another URC crown than this.
With several high-profile players set to leave the club in the summer, Smith will have to regroup and rebuild. But the pain of this defeat will sting for quite some time over the summer.
‘We didn’t convert enough of the opportunities we had,’ reflected Smith. ‘The Bulls came out in the second half with a desperate mindset.
‘I am not saying we will learn from this, that’s not what I want to say at all. But we will *have* to take what we can from it and learn.
‘Right now, we are a team who can set ourselves up for big moments. I think all Scottish teams — we need to go one step further going forward.
‘I don’t think you can measure disappointment. It rates highly. That’s what we will remember now this season, that feeling of disappointment. But it wasn’t a disappointing season.
‘We have a small squad of 38 players, not enough foreigners to back up our Scottish internationals, we had a tough schedule — and we still finished top of the standings. We have done extremely well in the URC and also in Europe as well.
Kyle Steyn scores the first of his two tries but it wasn’t enough for Glasgow to prevail
‘How full is the tank? There is still room for progression. I always have fire in the belly. It’s not about how hard you get hit. It’s about how hard you get hit whilst still being able to move forward.
‘Are we a championship-winning team? Maybe not. But I hope this disappointment can push us over the line next season.’
On the need for the squad to be refreshed, Smith added: ‘I want to build a garden. I don’t want the flower to die. We have a vision to build and make progress.’
Glasgow were dealt a major blow prior to kick-off when it was announced that scrum-half George Horne had failed a late fitness test.
Horne picked up a nasty hand injury in the quarter-final win over Connacht last week and, although Glasgow had been confident he would shake it off, he didn’t make it.
Instead, Jamie Dobie came in to play his first match in four months after undergoing surgery on a shoulder injury he picked up in the Calcutta Cup clash with England back on February 14.
What a game and what an occasion to make his comeback. Up against a Bulls team loaded with Springboks and World Cup winners, this was a colossal challenge for Glasgow.
It was the Bulls who took an early lead when South Africa’s World Cup-winning fly-half Handre Pollard drilled a penalty between the posts.
Pollard was then sin-binned shortly after for a deliberate knock-on which had killed a promising Glasgow attack stone-dead.
What followed over the next 25 minutes or so was quite incredible. Glasgow ran riot and scored three tries to leave their opponents punch-drunk.
Bulls players celebrate an incredible comeback in reaching the United Rugby Championship final
Having scored twice in a man-of-the-match display against Connacht last week, Kyle Steyn continued his scintillating form. He raced over to score the first try in the corner, before Sione Tuipulotu then fed him again for the Glasgow skipper to double his account only four minutes later.
This was rugby of the highest calibre from Glasgow. Their back three of Steyn, Kyle Rowe and Josh McKay were absolutely ripping the Bulls to shreds.
In that opening half-hour or so, Smith’s side played with a level of pace, width and precision that the South Africans simply could not match.
A third try arrived when a Glasgow lineout maul rampaged from left to right, before one decisive forward thrust took it over the Bulls’ line. A penalty try was awarded and the visitors were reduced to 14 men once again when lock Ruan Nortje was yellow-carded for collapsing the maul.
Who could possibly have envisaged this? It was total dominance from Glasgow. Yet, with so much class and experience in the Bulls side, a response was inevitable.
The white-and-blue jerseys started pounding away at the Glasgow line. Skipper Marcell Coetzee thought he had scored, only for it to be disallowed after a TMO review, but hooker Johan Grobbelaar touched down in the next passage of play.
Glasgow still led 21-10 at the break, but an 11-point lead actually felt fairly meagre in terms of how dominant they had been. Certainly, the game was not safe.
And so it proved as the Bulls came charging back with two tries in the first 15 minutes of the second half, the first scored by scrum-half Embrose Papier, the second by prop Francois Klopper.
On both occasions, Glasgow’s defence was far too porous. The conversion from Pollard put the Bulls back into the lead at 22-21.
But it is despair for Warriors’ Dan Lancaster as he ruefully reflects on a missed opportunity
This was now a test of character as much as anything for the Warriors. They wobbled in a big way. With 20 minutes to play, the question was whether or not they could steady themselves and regain their composure.
Up in the coaches’ box, Smith cut an increasingly frustrated figure. Glasgow looked panicked. They were not holding on to the ball well enough.
Their discipline had completely gone, conceding penalty after penalty, although a few of the calls from the referee did look fairly suspect.
They were getting away with it. Incredibly, Pollard, a man who was icy cool as he kicked the winning points in the World Cup final three years ago, missed three penalties in a row.
Glasgow could not establish any kind of platform from which to attack. Their final effort saw Adam Hastings, in his last game for the club, hold on to the ball for too long, take it ball into contact, before being turned over.
The Bulls then hoofed the ball into touch and scampered off like thieves in the night. For Glasgow, the sense of regret was overpowering.
