A renewed and revitalised Stuart Hogg is back doing what he does best and he now wants to lead Glasgow into the knockout stages in Europe for the first time.
The boy wonder capped at just 19 appeared to be going off the rails at the end of last season, with an ignominious red card in the Six Nations in Cardiff, reports of him being courted by other clubs and ending up just a water carrier for the Warriors in the semi-final and final of the PRO12.
But he’s come storming back this season, ended any speculation about his immediate future by signing a new two-year deal with the Warriors, while scoring two typically flamboyant tries for Scotland in the Autumn Series.
Now he wants a big backlash to last week’s loss 19-11 in Toulouse in the European Champions Cup when the four-time champions from France come to Scotstoun tomorrow, to gain a key advantage going into the last two rounds of the games in this year’s Pool stages.
It’s often forgotten that despite winning more than 20 caps and going on a British Lions tour, Hogg’s still in the same age group as team-mates Finn Russell, Adam Ashe, Mark Bennett and Jonny Gray.
But despite that wobble at the end of last year, the flying full-back knows now the best place for him to be.
“I am delighted to stay,” he said. “Obviously things were not going my way at one time and I got a bit disappointed.
“You always learn from your mistakes both on and off the field, you have to learn from things and move forward.
“The way I have started this season is the way I want to continue. I feel I have been playing relatively well and want to be the best rugby player I can be. There’s no doubt Glasgow have the right players and coaches to help me on my way.”
The visit of Toulouse, he believes, is the biggest single game in the club’s history.
“We have been in this competition and never been in a position to compete for the trophy, but this year we have had two wins in our first two games and that little blip at the weekend,” he said.
“This is a good opportunity this weekend to go out there and win and put ourselves back into contention. We want to be the first Scottish team to win a trophy and what better trophy to win than the European Champions Cup.
“When we have been beaten this season we have analysed well and come out all guns blazing trying to put that right. That’s the aim this week.”
The loss on Sunday and just missing out on a bomus point was hard to take, but Glasgow are unbeaten in competitive games at Scotstoun since Toulon won there back in January, and Glasgow are conscious that they can get an edge in the head-to-head between the two sides heading into the last two rounds.
“Winning the aggregate, scoring more tries, they’re always there for you to aim at in these matches,” he added. “The last thing we want is to go to Bath in the final game knowing we have to scrape a win to qualify.
“We were bitterly disappointed on Sunday,” he said. “We pride ourselves on being a well-disciplined team, being a really good attacking and defending team and we kind of let ourselves down in all aspects.
“To give away 14 penalties and two yellow cards is hugely disappointing. I actually believe we won the game when both sides had 15 men on the pitch, which just goes to show what could have happened.
“They are an attacking side and probably the best at offloading in the whole of Europe, so for us our defence has to be a wee bit better, get the low tackles in and get the second man in the attacking ball and stop the offloads.
“In terms of attack it is playing in the right areas, it is holding the ball up and when we get good attacking opportunities, we take them. We have the game plan in place and if we play to it we should be alright.”
The best thing about this stage of the competition, continued Hogg, was the immediate chance to put things right.
“We have that chance to bounce back straight away, but have to make it happen and it is going to take a massive performance from us. We have recovered well, we have trained well and analysed well for the last couple of days so we have to keep on improving until the end of the week.”