DTH Van der Merwe had every right to feel proud of his two-try contribution to Glasgow's effort in Toulon on Sunday, but any pleasure the Canadian winger took from his brace of touchdowns was heavily qualified by the knowledge that they arrived in the context of a hefty defeat.

After turning round 34-0 down, Van der Merwe's efforts, plus a try apiece by Niko Matawalu and Jonny Gray, helped Glasgow salvage one of the most improbable try bonus points in Heineken Cup history, but there is only so much delight you can feel when you end up on the wrong end of a 51-28 scoreline.

Which is to say, not much delight at all. "I guess it is okay to score a few tries, but it is not the result we wanted," said Van der Merwe drily.

"But it showed what we can do," the 27-year-old continued. "I think we let them play a bit too much in the first half. We got a rollocking in the changing room, but we stepped up in the second half.

"We don't know if Toulon maybe gave up a bit with their lead. We are happy with the second half, but they got other tries in too. We pride ourselves on our defence. We have to do better next week."

A combination of factors - chiefly a late return from international duty followed by a bout of sickness - has limited Van der Merwe to just one start in six competitive games this season. Brought off the bench at the start of the second half in the Stade Felix Mayol, in a tactical adjustment that also saw Matawalu move to scrum-half in place of Henry Pyrgos, the prolific winger showed he had lost none of his sharpness when he claimed his first touchdown after just two minutes.

"At half-time the chat was about showing who we are and what we pride ourselves on," Van der Merwe explained. "Once we got the first try, and then the second try, the guys out on the field were saying let's push for that bonus point as it is going to be important.

"It is massive for us. Any point away from home is a bonus for us and we got it against the defending Heineken Cup champions. We will know at the end of the group stages how important that point is."

The Heineken Cup format means that Glasgow will conclude the pool stage of the tournament by hosting Toulon at Scotstoun. In light of their second-half performance on Sunday, the thirst for revenge among Gregor Townsend's players was almost palpable. Van der Merwe's view of the return fixture echoed that of most of his team-mates.

"They have the sixteenth man here," said Van der Merwe of the intimidating atmosphere created by the Toulon crowd. "We could hardly call plays on the sideline. On the bench you could not hear each other. Hopefully, the Warrior Nation will step it up and fill out Scotstoun and pay them back with a win."

Josh Strauss, the Glasgow No.8, suggested that a valuable lesson for future games had been learned against Toulon. He added: "It's the first game of the Heineken Cup, so it's better now than later. We can learn something from it and come back next week better and stronger. We have to remember what we did well in the first five [RaboDirect PRO12] games and stick to that next week."