GREGOR TOWNSEND confessed he was gutted as his Glasgow Warriors left Cork empty-handed.

Going into the match top of the table, the Scotstoun side slumped to a 22-10 defeat at the hands of Munster.

Warriors suffered a poor first half and went into the break 12-0 down to the Irish side.

However, a roaring fightback after the interval as a try from Rossouw de Clerk - his first for the club - and a penalty and a conversion from Conor Braid brought Glasgow to within two points of their hosts with 20 minutes still to play.

However, it was a small deficit that would only last a matter of seconds as Munster hit back immediately with a try before later extending their lead.

It is a result that leaves Warriors joint second with Ulster as their conquerors from the weekend leapfrog them into top spot by a point.

And head coach Townsend couldn't hide his disappointment when assessing his team's failure to build on their second-half momentum, and also being denied a late try when Lee Jones was judged to have been in touch when he grounded the ball with just five minutes left on the clock.

He said: "I felt we deserved to pick up a losing point and we're gutted to leave with nothing. We put ourselves in a position to win the game after a fantastic try by Rossouw de Clerk.

"I felt there was a real change in the second half. We started defending much better and had the wind behind us. We played a lot of rugby down in Munster's half and started to get penalties."

Townsend added: "I was really pleased with the displays of guys who have not had much, or any rugby this season. I was also really pleased to see Adam Ashe and Lee Jones return from injury. Adam put in a big shift and did a lot of good things in the game. Will Bordill was excellent on his first start for the club."

It is a defeat which will not be allowed to linger for too long in the Scotstoun camp.

The players will report today to go over what went wrong before beginning to build for another big game this Friday night against Zebre.

The Italians currently sit bottom of the Guinness Pro12 table, and presents a fantastic opportunity for a bonus-point win to take Warriors back to the top of the table once more.

Townsend told the official Warriors website: "It's a very big game in the league standings, Munster have a big game away to Ospreys and we're only a point behind them, so it would be great to be pushing them going into the break.

"It is a quick turnaround for Friday, but we'll see who is available to us from Saturday night's squad. We hope to get two or three players back from Scotland.

Tickets for the match gainst Zebre are still available. More information can be found at http://www.GlasgowWarriors.org