WITH top-flight European competition only days away and Glasgow Warriors desperate to make the Champions Cup breakthrough they have failed to make despite recent successes in the Guinness PRO12, they have had to move quickly to end a sudden front row crisis.

They already knew that Fraser Brown, their Scotland hooker, had come back from the World Cup with a toe problem that would keep him out of action for a couple of months but now they have been hit by a spate of injuries among their other hookers when he was followed into the medical room by Kevin Bryce and Fergus Scott, both needing surgery on shoulder problems.

That leaves Pat MacArthur as the only fit hooker at the club and for the last couple of weeks they have had to draft James Malcolm in from Ayr.

Now the answer has arrived – Shalva Mamukashvili, the Georgian World Cup hooker, had been invited to train with the Warriors and, after impressing, has been signed to the end of the season, by which time Bryce and Scott should be back in the fold.

"It all seems to happen to us that we get injuries in the same position. Earlier in the season, it was two fullbacks with Peter Murchie and Glenn Bryce, and then literally in the space of 24 hours it was three hookers," explained Gregor Townsend, the head coach.

"We looked around to see who was available. It was great to get someone with experience of the Champions Cup last year and the World Cup. We were able to look at him in training and he has impressed and he has earned the contract. He has been very diligent and very professional. The bread-and-butter for a hooker is a lineout and the scrum and he has done those well. He loves the physical side of the game, which we have seen in the clips. We are very happy and he has fitted in well with the players."

The sudden run of front row problems could not have come at a worse time with the club preparing to embark on their annual attempt to break in to the top rank in Europe. They may be PRO12 champions but in 16 seasons when they have competed in the main European competition – starting in 1997/8 and failing to qualify only twice – they have never reached the last eight.

The closest was in their first season when second in the pool earned a quarter final play-off, in which Glasgow were beaten embarrassingly badly by Leicester, and in 2011/12 when they were second in their pool but with the worst record of the runners-up did not progress. Every other season they have finished third or fourth.

As Glasgow get better, says Townsend, the competition to win through has intensified: "The new system of qualification has really helped," he said. "With the 20 best teams in Europe, the quality has gone up. It is much tougher to get through and it means you are up against big teams all the time.

"There are reasons why we have not qualified. The first is that we have not been good enough consistently and the second is that it is very tough. Even if we play very well we are up against some quality teams. We have to play close to our best for six games. I believe if we do that we will get into the latter stages because we now have the players to go up against the best teams in Europe."

Last season was a classic case in point. They started at a gallop by thrashing Bath at Scotstoun and then beating Montpellier away, so that even after after losing home and away to Toulouse, they travelled to Bath for the final game knowing a win could see them through.

"Last year was our best effort since I've been here," Townsend said. "One of the best games we have ever produced was against Bath at home, and then we won in a very different way in Montpellier. We just weren't able to follow that up. We were inches away from a quarter-final when Sean Maitland stretched for a score against Bath that would have got us a win [but was an inch or so short]."

That is the issue as they prepare to face Racing 92 in Paris in this season's opening European Champions Cup match. While Glasgow have had some remarkable wins over the years they have never managed to maintain that standard through all six of the pool games.

It is all about consistency, as Townsend agreed: "Yes, absolutely," he said. "The teams that have got through to the last four in the last few years - Clermont, Saracens, Toulon - have had it and it would be great if we were consistently challenging for the latter stages. We've done that in the PRO12 for the last four years, five of the last six years. It is tougher doing it in Europe, but we have built the foundations to go on with confidence."