Why did Warriors look so rusty?

Glasgow’s season came to end on Friday night at Scotstoun with a whimper, rather than the bang the 10,000 fans had been hoping for.

They were humbled by a Scarlets side that looked hungrier, sharper and more eager to defend their title.

The sold-out Scotstoun had little to cheer about until the closing minutes of the game when, at last, Glasgow started to play with a bit of pride.

On an evening when it really needed the senior international players to stand up and take a lead, captain Ryan Wilson set the tone when he conceded a stupid penalty following the game’s kick-off as he took out the Scarlets’ player illegally.

Glasgow’s discipline was poor in the first 40 minutes and they were punished by some excellent linekicking by man-of-the-match Rhys Patchell.

Glasgow weren’t helped by the late withdrawal of Stuart Hogg, but the game was lost much further forward.

Their forwards were bullied off the ball and their defence was uncharacteristically slack.

Nick Grigg missed a simple tackle for the first try and he was not alone in falling off first-time tackles that really shouldn’t be missed at this level.

Both sides have played some exhilarating rugby over the course of a long season. Glasgow dominated

Glasgow were humbled by a side that looked hungrier

the Pro14 in the first few months and, until Friday, were undefeated in the league at Scotstoun.

But their form had tailed off at the wrong time of the year. Instead of building to a crescendo in the closing weeks, they have gone off the boil and looked a shadow of their former selves.

There was little for the Scotstoun faithful to get behind, which was a shame.

It was an ordinary conclusion to Finn Russell’s career as a Warrior, too. Some of his handling was sublime, but equally some of his kicking and decision-making was well below what he can be capable of.

There were only occasional glimpses of the great player he can be, and he will head off to France knowing that he has some work to do to nail down a starting place in the Champions Cup runners-up team.

That Glasgow hadn’t played any competitive rugby for three weeks could have contributed to this apparent rustiness, but it was only in the closing quarter that they began to show some of the urgency and accuracy that was lacking in the first 60 minutes.

Credit has to go to Scarlets, but given their home advantage it was Glasgow’s match to lose.

Sadly, the result meant it was a forgettable end to the professional season in Scotland.