A stony silence fell over Scotstoun as the ball was hoofed into touch. After a period of relentless pressure from Glasgow Warriors, Toulon won the turnover and kicked it dead. Game over.
It was not supposed to be this way. Playing at home in a Champions Cup quarter-final for the first time, Glasgow had it within their grasp to make history.
Knowing that home advantage awaited them at Murrayfield if they reached the semi-finals, this was a golden opportunity to make a huge noise in Europe.
As good a chance as they might ever have. As a club, these games don’t come around all that often for Glasgow. History tells us that.
Stafford McDowall of Glasgow Warriors scores his team’s first try against Toulon
But they blew it. The sense of regret that swept over the crowd at full-time was overpowering. On the field, many of the players slumped to their knees, head in hands.
Up in the coaching box, Franco Smith wore the expression of a man who did not see this coming. He looked deep in thought, perhaps wondering where it all went wrong.
Glasgow were expected to win this match. They have been one of the form teams in Europe over recent months, beating a succession of top sides along the way.
Toulon are decent, but they are not a top team. They have also been poor away from home all season. They are not at the same level as the likes of Toulouse, who were vanquished here a few months ago.
That’s where the regret will come from. In one of the biggest matches in the club’s history, Glasgow just didn’t produce their best stuff.
Toulon’s Fijian wing Seta Tuicuvu carries the ball into contact against Glasgow
It is easy to be philosophical about it and reflect on the brutal realities of elite sport. Teams will, at times, have bad days at the office. It happens.
But to fall short like this? Against a team whom Glasgow would beat if they were anywhere near their best? This will sting.
The pain of this defeat will hurt more than when Smith’s side were walloped 52-0 away at Leinster at the same stage of the competition last year.
Ultimately, Glasgow tripped over their own feet. They could yet go on to win the URC this season, but when will they ever get a better chance to go deep — really deep — in Europe?
Toulon are not the force they once were. The Galactico era of around a decade ago, when they won this competition three years on the trot between 2013-15, is a thing of the past.
Back in those days, they had Jonny Wilkinson, Bakkies Botha, Ali Williams, Freddie Michalak, Matt Giteau, Mathieu Bastareaud, Bryan Habana, Leigh Halfpenny among many other star-studded names.
Glasgow Warriors’ back Ollie Smith of breaks past Tomas Albornoz
Rarely in the history of the Champions Cup has one club been able to boast such an incredible embarrassment of riches. It was almost a World XV dressed in a Toulon jersey.
The current crop are not at that same level, but they are no mugs either. Glasgow found that to their cost when these two teams met in the 2023 Challenge Cup Final in Dublin.
They were thumped 43-19 on the day and Smith had spoken in recent days about how the team had improved, both technically and mentally, since then.
The challenge was to go out and prove it. Glasgow scored twice in the opening 25 minutes, with the tries coming from Stafford McDowall and Ollie Smith.
But it was all a bit of a struggle. Toulon scored three tries of their own and led 17-12 as the teams went back into the sheds at half-time.
Glasgow’s half-back pairing of Ben Afshar and Dan Lancaster were not having a great deal of success. Afshar was in to replace the injured George Horne, while Lancaster got the nod ahead of Adam Hastings.
Lancaster, in particular, struggled to exert any control over the game. He was also at fault defensively for one of the Toulon tries, falling off a tackle as Gael Drean raced in to score in the corner.
Glasgow players are dejected at full-time after their Champions Cup loss to Toulon
Afshar, the club’s third-choice scrum-half behind Horne and Jamie Dobie, was slow to get the ball away, albeit he wasn’t helped by the referee Karl Dickson failing to penalise some pretty blatant offsides from Toulon.
One of the great strengths throughout Smith’s four years as Glasgow’s head coach has been the way in which he has developed players and built genuine depth in the squad. But to go into a match of this magnitude with Afshar and Lancaster as the nine and ten did feel like it might be asking a lot.
Hastings is leaving the club in the summer to join Montpellier. It’s hard to see how Glasgow move forward with Lancaster as their first-choice fly-half. It’s a position they need to strengthen in the summer.
Lancaster was taken off at half-time, with Hastings coming on as his replacement. But he was taken off with just over ten minutes to play due to a failed HIA.
Glasgow threw the kitchen sink at it in those final stages. But they fell short. You suspect this one might take some time to get over. The wounds are deep.
