JACKSON COLUMN: Glasgow Warriors arrive as Euro contenders

Should Montpellier end up belonging to Glasgow on Saturday night, then the most consistent of all the GUINNESS PRO12 clubs will have served notice all over Europe that the serious Celtic contenders extend beyond Ireland's provincial trio of past champions.

No Glaswegian team has ever got as far as the last eight of the European Cup, a goal which has constantly eluded them since the advent of the competition almost 20 years ago. But then no Glaswegian team had ever achieved a victory as stunning as the one at Scotstoun last Saturday.

Warriors 37, Bath 10 reverberated around the continent as the result of the opening round of the new European Rugby Champions' Cup.

Until last weekend, nobody had got the better of Bath this season by more than seven points. The Warriors beat them by virtually four times as many in the course of raising the PRO12 flag to the top of the list of first-round victories.

They had seen off no shortage of visitors from the Aviva Premiership over the years - Exeter, Northampton, Wasps, Gloucester, Sale and, way back at the turn of the last century, Leicester.

Bath, though, had nearly always been beyond their ken - just that win in Firhill in 2011 when the ball bounced beautifully for Richie Gray to fall over the try line and clinch victory.

Not surprisingly, head coach Gregor Townsend acclaimed the win as the best of a season which has now brought the Warriors six victories in seven matches.

"It takes a lot of effort to play the rugby we aspire to play," Townsend said. "When you come up against a team like Bath who move the ball a lot you need to be fit and you need to be tough."

Now he and skipper Alastair Kellock will demand more of the same in the warmth of southern France. No quarter-finalist ever gets that far without achieving something on the road which explains why the Warriors have become almost perennial absentees from the knock-out stage.

France has been all too barren down the years, a sequence which adds up to 14 trips without a win since their first foreign venture took them to Colomiers in 1998.

Only once in what used to be known as the Heineken Cup have they avoided defeat on French soil, when they were last at Montpellier in December 2011.

Ten points down, they came back to draw 13-13 thanks to a try from Rory Lamont and three successful kicks from substitute fly-half Duncan Weir.

They had been down Montpellier way ten years earlier, winning there in the secondary European Shield tournament when Sean Lamont scored a try during his first stint with Glasgow before leaving for spells in England at Northampton and Wales at Llanelli.

Back then the attendance, officially put at 500, could have been counted by hand. There will be room for 15,000 on Saturday evening and Townsend will have a clearer idea than most visiting coaches of what awaits him.

He played there for a season, albeit ten years ago, when the home pack included an 18-year-old at No. 8 by the name of Louis Picamoles.

After a losing bonus point to show for their opening tie in Toulouse, Montpellier will have good cause to be wary of the Warriors and not merely because of what they did to Bath.

This time last year, the French club succumbed to another PRO12 opponent in their first home match of the campaign, against Ulster. Should the Warriors follow suit, they will have every reason to believe they are on their way to the quarter-finals at long last.

Their high-tempo destruction of Bath takes pride of place among performances in the opening round when the PRO12 contenders more than held their own against those from the other two Leagues, they did the best!

The Aviva Premiership and Top 14 managed three wins each to four from the PRO12 - the Warriors, the unbeaten Ospreys, Leinster and Munster.

Four other PRO12 winners in the Challenge Cup left the PRO12 teams on top of the Inter League Winners' Table with 8 wins overall. Cardiff Blues, Connacht, the Dragons and Edinburgh all earned the win - well done to all!

Glasgow did it in time-honoured fashion and if the Warriors now have to follow their own tough act with arguably a tougher one, Ian Keatley followed the toughest of all in squeezing Munster through by the narrowest of margins at Sale.

In doing so, he showed everyone that Ronan O'Gara does not have a monopoly on the tricky business of winning big matches with last-minute drop goals.

Thanks to Keatley's composure and execution of his craft at the ultimate in white-knuckle time, Munster open the second round with another potentially mighty duel at Thomond Park on Friday night.

Saracens' return to Limerick will evoke memories of stirring contests from yesteryear, of Munster falling short in the quarter-final two seasons ago and winning the semi-final at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry en route to their second European final in 2008.

For many, the sharpest images will be those of the final moments from Sarries' first appearance at Thomond Park at the end of the first week of the new century.

Keith Wood's burrowing try gave O'Gara a conversion to win it, one which he took with a little help from the far upright - Munster 31, Saracens 30.

Nobody will be surprised if it's that close again this time and the same goes Toulon's first trip to Northern Ireland. Ulster's long list of French conquest in Belfast runs far into double figures, including three in one season against Toulouse (twice) and Stade Francais.

A solitary losing bonus point from Leicester last weekend leaves Ulster no margin for further error against opponents who, for all their success over the last two seasons, have proved surprisingly fallible on the road. Each of their two title-winning campaigns survived one defeat - most recently and, most surprisingly, at BT Cardiff Arms Park this time last year.

For once the customary barrage of Jonny Wilkinson penalties failed to deny the Blues a thrilling home win, 19-15. From an Ulster perspective, Wilkinson will be safely out of range in Belfast at lunchtime on Saturday, a fact which still leaves them with a trio of test goal kickers - Matt Giteau, James O'Connor and Leigh Halfpenny.

Follow us on Facebook, join the conversation on Twitter, sign up to our YouTube channel for extensive match highlights and sign up for our newsletter for regular updates on the GUINNESS PRO12