Scott Cummings believes the fact Glasgow Warriors held off a spirited second half fightback from Cardiff to win in the Welsh capital on Friday night shows the progression the team has made under Franco Smith.  

Glasgow were 33-12 ahead at half-time after an excellent first half, with three tries in 10 minutes taking the champions clear before the interval.  

But Cardiff fought back and were within four points going into the closing stages before Glasgow pulled away.  

While acknowledging there is work to do for the URC champions, Cummings said holding on to close the game out was a sign of progress.  

The second row said: “It turned out a bit of a basketball scoreline in the end. Not quite how we wanted it, but you can’t be not happy with a win.  

“It was a five-point win, so we’ll take it, we can’t not be happy with winning. 

“Maybe in years past those might have been games that we kind of let them get back in and it was a bit closer.  

“I think we were able to show our quality in those last ten minutes. We were able to pull away at the end. 

“But we’re not going to win every game like that. It’s unfeasible. So we need to take a good look at ourselves. 

“Like I said, though, we’ve got to enjoy the win first. It’s still a 50-point win, you can’t be too doom and gloom about it at the end of the day. 

“But we’re not 100 per cent happy with everything.” 

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One of the areas where there is room for improvement will be at the set-piece. The Warriors were sent into reverse at a couple of scrums, while they also lost three lineouts on their own ball.  

Cummings explained why the Glasgow set-piece, usually such a weapon, struggled in the Welsh capital.  

“Cardiff put some pressure on us,” he said.  

“We’ve still got to get back to our basics a bit more, and just really focus on trying to become that dominant pack that we had last year. There’s definitely stuff we can work on in those areas.  

“We’ll reassess over the weekend, come in on Monday with a new plan, and definitely try and work on those areas.”  

The 27-year-old also reflected on the news that broke just hours before kick-off that Richie Gray will leave Glasgow at the end of next month.  

“Richie has been an amazing player,” Cummings said of his second row colleague. 

“He’s been around for so long, he’s got so much experience and brings so much to the squad.  

“But also there’s some really good young guys coming up, like big Max [Williamson] big Al [Samuel] as well. They’re playing unbelievably now, and I believe that they’re ready to come in and it’s going to be their time coming up as well. 

"He’s going to be missed, you can’t not miss someone of his quality. But I believe we’ve got players who can step up into that role.” 

He hopes the aforementioned duo of Samuel and Williamson, plus Gregor Brown, can help mitigate the absence of 2013 Lions tourist Gray.  

“These young guys coming up are such good quality and they’re starting to bring their own ideas and challenging us on areas in which we can still improve as well.  

“Yes, we will need to adapt but it’s nothing we can’t handle because we’ve got players in place who can definitely step up.” 

Zebre will travel to Scotstoun next weekend buoyed by their shock win over Munster, and a pre-season win over the Warriors, though many of Franco Smith’s first-team – Cummings included – did not feature in Parma that day.  

Cummings reflected: “It wasn’t our finest day, obviously. It was a pre-season game and we had a lot of young guys out there getting their first experience of pro rugby.” 

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And the former Kelvinside Academy pupil said the Italian side have proven they are “no joke” already this season.  

“They’ve got some quality players and they’ll put pressure on you and they’ll capitalise on your mistakes. We’re definitely not taking Zebre lightly.  

“It’s going to be a massive challenge for us but thankfully we’re back at Scotstoun which will be a big boost for us and we’re ready to crack into next week before heading to South Africa.”