GREGOR TOWNSEND reckons Glasgow's last-gasp 24-23 defeat at the hands of Harlequins has given the Scotstoun men the perfect foundation for their build-up to the Guinness PRO12 campaign.

Warriors squandered a nine-point lead in the last seven minutes to lose out to the men from the Twickenham Stoop in the first of their truncated two-game pre-season programme that ends in Saturday's trip to London Scottish.

But with flying Canadian winger DTH van der Merwe marking his return to the fray with an outstanding 90-metre interception try and Scotstoun fans' favourite Niko Matawalu touching down twice, Townsend was upbeat.

The Glasgow head coach said: "You want to win, but in general I was very pleased with what I got from the boys.

"When you look at a Harlequins side that started with seven full England internationals in it, compared to the side we started with, plus this was their third and final build-up game and just our first, we can be very happy with the way things went.

"I thought we had some great contributions from our new players. Alex Allan had a fantastic game and Euan Murray carried ball well and put some great tackles in.

"After the break DTH and Niko came in and got in on the tries and I thought we offered a lot more intent.

"DTH has got himself into great shape."

With club captain Al Kellock weeks away from returning from injury, Townsend will be pleased Josh Strauss revelled in the captaincy.

James Eddie laid down a marker for the coming campaign with a bruising ball-carrying display on the blindside.

But Townsend admits his side will need to tighten up in defence.

He said: "Defensively we can and will be better but this has given us a great foundation to build on and we can now look forward to the trip to London Scottish with some optimism.

"But you look at the quality of the catch-passing, the lines we ran and penetration we had and there was an awful lot to be happy with."

The rest of the squad should get game time at London Scottish.