Townsend and co also saw their European game against Racing 92 called off in the wake of the attacks on Paris.
With the World Cup having taken a number of their players away for the start of the campaign, the defending GUINNESS PRO12 champions are still trying to find their feet.
And while game time will surely help them do exactly that, Townsend is adamant the additional training block will also benefit them as they gear themselves up for a European clash with Scarlets.
"It's not ideal, but the positive is that players are fresh and even more determined to play a game," Townsend told The Scotsman. "We also get to train more. ?
"Obviously we want to play because this group haven't played that many games since the World Cup, but when this happened two years ago we played Edinburgh on the quarter-finals weekend in Europe and we played Treviso during the Six Nations and did pretty well, so we have experience of this.
"That group of 20-odd players who were away during the World Cup did not have time to work with our coaches over the last three months, or time to work with their teammates, so now we have had that even if it means we have not had a game.
"We've learned from parts of the Northampton game. I think it will be different because we are a couple of weeks further down the line.
"That was the first time that the group had played together, but since then we have had a couple of games and we've trained a lot together."
To buy tickets for the GUINNESS PRO12 Grand Final click here. Also 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.
63x46.png){kind=logo}