Tighthead props are rarely identified as man-of-the-match but the award presented to Zander Fagerson last weekend was evidence that Glasgow Warriors important derby win had more to do with perspiration than inspiration.

True to form the 21-year-old internationalist sought to share the credit with front-row colleagues Jamie Bhatti and Fraser Brown, while urging their entire squad to keep looking for improvement.

“I don’t know who picked it, but fair play. I was very surprised, but it’s nice and I’ll take it,” he said, reflecting on the individual prize he picked up after the team’s 17-0 defeat of Edinburgh as they bounced back from losing to the same opponents the previous weekend.

“Jamie Bhatti has been playing great recently, so has Fraser Brown. We have been building. The scrum wasn’t where it should have been at the start of the season, but we have built on it and we’re pretty chuffed.”

“Last week we weren’t happy with the performance. Today we weren’t perfect either, but a win’s a win. Keeping them to nil was pretty good as well.”

It was pretty much the response that had been demanded of them by coaches who had to be concerned.

They had already watched their team exit the European Champions Cup without managing to register a win in their four matches to date.

On the back of that the Murrayfield defeat, which was their third in a row following back-to-back defeats at the hands of French Championship pace-setters Montpellier, might also have seen them lose momentum in the Pro14 after what had been a dominant start to that campaign when they won their first 10 matches.

“Things didn’t click (at Murrayfield). That wasn’t us. We had a pretty rough debrief after four days off for Christmas,” said Fagerson.

“We had a good hard look at ourselves and asked a few hard questions about where we want to be and who we want to be and how we want to play. Today was a start on the road. It will benefit us in the long run.

“We got told we were pretty shit in all areas. It wasn’t fun but it needed to be done and in the long run it will benefit us. It showed us we can’t just rock up and start throwing the ball away, but we’re building and we can only get better. We’re happy heading into the new year.”

A strange little sequence of matches now awaits, running into the Six Nations Championship.

Their Murrayfield mugging at the hands of an Edinburgh side that was reduced to 14 men after just five minutes, ought to ensure there will be no slip up when they travel to Parma to meet perennial Italian strugglers Zebre on Saturday.

After that that they could hardly be blamed for having lost all interest in the European Champions Cup, whose fixtures will occupy the following two weekends, but Fagerson insisted that would not be the case.

“We’ve got pride to play for… we’ll never lie down,” he said.

“I guess a few guys will get opportunities, but we’re not here to lie down, we’re here to get wins. There are a few exciting weeks coming up leading into a busy part of the season. We’re getting to the business end. This was a good start but we have to build on that.”