Determined as Glasgow Warriors had been to focus on their own failings following their defeat by Saracens in the Heineken Champions Cup, the double citing of the English champions’ centre Alex Lozowski invited criticism of the way the match had been officiated and it was not rejected.

Dave Rennie, Glasgow’s head coach, firmly maintained yesterday that his players had only themselves to blame for failing to take so much as a losing bonus point from the encounter, but after it emerged that sufficient evidence had emerged to bring Lozowski in front of a disciplinary panel, he suggested that those moments were by no means the only offences the match officials had failed to address during the course of the game.

“I think one of them is the clean-out on Fraser Brown. I was really surprised at the time that the TMO didn’t jump in and deal with that,” said Rennie.

“We ended up getting penalised for another issue and it cost us three points, but the fact he has been cited shows it was probably a yellow card – reckless, no arms, into the knees, which could have been season-ending for Fraser.

“We didn’t cite him. We let the citing commissioner deal with that sort of thing. But we’re certainly disappointed with a number of things that happened during the game from a refereeing perspective.

"We’ve cut a number of clips and sent them in to Joel Jutge (European Rugby’s head of match officials) and we’re waiting for a response.”

However, far from condemning Saracens for rough-house tactics, the competitor in the New Zealander expressed a grudging admiration for the streetwise way in which the two-time former European champions went about their business.

"You need strong refereeing, I reckon. What you permit you promote,” Rennie observed.

“I just think if the referee had been stronger in the first 10 minutes of the game, penalised Itoje for creeping around the maul and other offences, it would get changed.

"But if you allow guys to do it, they'll keep doing it ... and good on them. It's smart footy in the end.

“We want to be really physical, within the law. We've had our say. We've moved on and want to look ahead. We certainly haven't sat around with the players and grumbled about any of the decisions.

"We had our chances and got ourselves at the right end of the field but needed to be more patient and clinical.”

The ferocity of the clash took its toll with Alex Dunbar suffering a concussion and the aforementioned Brown picking up shoulder and knee knocks. But, with the return to availability of Dunbar’s fellow centre Sam Johnson also offering an additional option, both have a chance to be involved this coming weekend.

Saracens, however, were left counting the greater cost, with several of their players breaking bones in the Scotstoun encounter.

Little doubt, then, that Glasgow proved they can be tough enough to do battle with the most imposing of teams.

"I think there's been lot's of question marks around whether we're tough enough up front.

"We were really confident the guys would get up for [Saracens] and the guys need to do it seven days later,” said their coach, as he sought to re-set sights on this weekend’s do-or-die visit to Cardiff Blues.

“If you've got any aspirations of winning silverware at the business end of the year you have lots of big games. We're confident we are playing well, have prepared well and there's no reason why we can't fire again on Sunday."

Maximising their opportunity to do so requires careful management.

“Each week is different, so we’ll do a little bit less at the start of the week to make sure we get some of those battered bodies sorted,” said Rennie.

“We’ll treat guys individually. We’re well into our season so the boys are pretty clear with what we are doing.

"Anything new we will introduce today to make sure the boys have got that clarity. And when we rake the field on Sunday we can hopefully bring the same sort of intensity as last Sunday.”

However the impression is that if Glasgow could match the physicality they showed against Saracens, they could blast aside the challenge of both Cardiff and Lyon and set up a pool decider with the Premiership club in the final match.

Should they do so, they could also qualify for the quarter-finals as one of the best-placed runners-up, but Rennie knows it will take more of the same in all four of those games if they are to go to Watford with any realistic hope of involvement in the knockout stages.

"I think it's going to be a necessity if we're going to qualify from here. We've got to bring that intensity to each game,” he said.

“On the back of that, we've just got to be far more clinical. If we can defend like that and if we can be can really physical in our carry and clean, you give yourselves a chance.

“Our set-piece has been going well.

"Cardiff are a good side. They had a good result last week. Playing them at home, if they can win it, puts them in a strong position."