The young Glasgow players involved in Saturday’s heavy pre-season defeat to Zebre will have learned a harsh lesson, but will be better for the experience, insists scrum-half Ben Afshar.
While the squad did include five full Scotland internationals, as well as Henco Venter and Josh McKay who played in the URC final win in June, for many the match in Parma was their first exposure to the professional game.
Afshar, whose own first-team experience amounts to seven substitute appearances and a solitary start, said the match showed the gulf in quality between age-grade or semi-professional rugby.
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He said: "You come into an environment where it's professional. You make mistakes, you get punished, and it's a tough lesson, but it's something they'll learn.
“The boys are always keen to learn. These young guys are coming for the positions. It's a first opportunity for loads of them. First time they've put on the jersey.
“It’s a big step up but it's something that you've got to get used to and you've got to adapt to. They've been training hard for two weeks. You can't say we've not been training for this. We're physically in a good place. It's just maybe a little bit of a shock to the system.”
While head coach Franco Smith admitted the result was “not good enough”, he was keen to stress winning was not the be-all and end-all of the trip.
“There's clearly stuff to work on,” former Scotland U20 captain Afshar added.
“It’s the first game we've played so it gives us a starting point to see where the errors are, where maybe we're making mistakes.
“It's good to get it done in pre-season so that when we come to the first game of the season, we're ready to go and can learn from what's gone wrong there.”
Afshar also felt Zebre were sharper having played French side Oyonnax – whose squad includes former Warrior Oli Kebble – last weekend, and had a point to prove against the new URC champions.
“We've just won the URC so we know every team is going to be gunning for us. They're going to be ready to play us, they're going to be up for it.
“We also knew Zebre had a game last week and they'd be game ready. And to be fair to them, they were really good defensively and they just took their opportunities and really kicked on.”
Glasgow will aim to respond when they welcome Connacht to Scotstoun on Saturday evening.
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