GLASGOW Warriors’ joint captain Henry Pyrgos has insisted that the team has made progress this season - despite almost certainly failing to reach the PRO12 play-offs for the first time in six years.

The scrum-half, who is co-skipper along with Jonny Gray, accepted that some of the team’s performances in the league had been frustrating. But he thinks that reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup is a big milestone for the team, and that losing in the last eight to Saracens is an experience they can learn a lot from.

“I think it’s been a great year in terms of getting through in Europe,” Scotland international Pyrgos said when he was asked if the Warriors had taken a backwards step this season. “Obviously we haven't won anything, and getting to the quarter-final doesn't get you a trophy, but as a marker for the club it was huge. It was great to see so many fans go down [to Saracens]. It's frustrating, because we want to be playing in the semi-final.

“First and foremost, you want to do well in the league. It's frustrating, the position we're in at the moment; it's not in our hands.

“Every year, the focus is being in the top four and even the top two because you want a home semi. This year, qualifying for Europe was amazing, but we didn't go on and play as well as we can in that quarter-final, although Saracens played really well.”

Glasgow underperformed on the day at Allianz Park, losing 38-13, but Pyrgos is convinced that the experience will stand the team in good stead in the seasons to come. “I think it will be a massive driver to get to the quarter-finals [again],” the 27-year-old said of that defeat by the reigning English and European champions.

“We didn't play well enough on the day and Saracens were a lot better. If we get in that situation again we just have to make sure we turn up and play as well as we can to give ourselves a better opportunity of going through. Going further in Europe over the next couple of years will be a huge driver for us.

“Every year you start afresh. You're in there with the 20 best teams in Europe, so it can be hard to get out of your group. If you get to the quarter-finals you have to take it from there.”

Glasgow need to win their last two games with bonus points - they are away to Leinster on Friday then at home to Edinburgh a week on Saturday - to have even a slim chance of getting into the semi-finals. Even then, they would need a highly unlikely combination of other results to go their way before they could take their place in the last four for the seventh year running,

Realistically, Pyrgos is thinking of the two coming games as tough contests in their own right, and said the squad had not wasted time thinking about their chances of making the play-offs. “We haven't talked a lot about that, to be honest. We've got a big challenge against Leinster away, where we haven't won for five years, I think.

“But we’re very excited. We want to go there and finish the season as well as we can. Whatever happens, happens, but we want to go there and win.”