Tom Jordan admitted Glasgow were far from their best as they slipped to a second consecutive pre-season defeat against Connacht on Saturday night.
The 25-year-old was one of several Warriors making their first appearances of the season, and felt it was a step up from the 31-0 defeat to Zebre in Italy seven days earlier.
He said: “We definitely stepped up from last week, just in terms of clarity and definitely the accuracy was increased as well. The silver lining is it’s pre-season, and that's what it's for.
“It's for trying different things, trying different combinations, trying to work on some things, and you've got the freedom of playing a little bit looser.
"We can narrow our focus come the start of the URC.”
Jordan offered his own opinions on why Glasgow came out of a scrappy encounter second-best.
He said: “We were probably a little bit slow, probably just not as physical as probably just absorbed their carries a little bit, which ultimately is going to affect your attack and defence, and you probably saw that in the first half,” he added.
And while there is little but pride at stake in pre-season, Jordan admitted the players were still disappointed to have lost.
He said: "You’re a professional athlete who's always striving to be the best, so it's always a little bit disappointing when you don't get the result.”
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With Adam Hastings one of the Warriors’ headline summer signings, Jordan may be used more at inside centre by Franco Smith this season.
And Jordan enjoyed linking up with Hastings on his return to Scotstoun.
“It was good to play with him and it’s good to have him back,” he said.
“I was here when he was here previously, so I know Adam well, he's one of my good mates. It’s good to see him back playing, he's a really classy player.”
Jordan also knows that when the league season rolls around in a fortnight – Glasgow start their campaign with a trip to Ulster – opponents will raise their game in an attempt to knock off the defending champions.
"The opposition are going to target us way more,” said Jordan, who started the URC final at fly-half but was at inside centre on Saturday.
“Last year we were definitely more under the radar, but when you go up against the top teams, you know they're the top team, you're going to prep harder, you're going to have that chip on your shoulder going into the games.
“Now we've got that, I guess, luxury that we're the ones everyone wants to knock off, so even in the pre-season they're going to come pretty hard to beat us, so fair play to Connacht.
“That's going to be our theme for the season, every team's going to want to come and smash us up.
“I think it's important that we just get our mindset right and just take the learnings and then just rip into the first game and get all that rust and stuff out of the system.”
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