AT Scottish domestic rugby’s showpiece gathering late last season it was all too tempting to conclude that the hugely popular Niko Matawalu’s time in these parts was coming to an end.

Released to Stirling County for their Scottish Cup final, his inclusion had looked as if it might give the underdogs a real chance, yet he spilled a scoring chance and was largely responsible for conceding two tries in the few minutes he was afield, before retiring injured, his team-mates going on to suffer a hefty defeat.

If one thing about him can be counted upon, however, it is the Fijian’s positivity, so jump three months forward to the start of a new season and it should have been no surprise that up against one of the world’s most famous rugby clubs he was doing what he does best, lighting up an arena as Glasgow Warriors ran riot against inferior opposition.

The debt owed to the creativity of Adam Hastings and Ruaridh Jackson in setting up the two tries that won him the man-of-the-match award cannot be overstated, Glasgow’s past, present and future play-makers showing delightful footwork, acceleration, vision and timing in delivering the ball to him. However, ever more encouraging for Glasgow supporters was the post-match evidence that having had a year to assess his resources, head coach Dave Rennie, now seems set to use Matawalu to what was always obviously best effect, by treating his talents as a luxury rather than giving him the responsibility of running the game from scrum-half.

“He’s a bit of a free spirit,” Rennie observed, wryly.

“I’m not convinced he’ll run to structure if we put him at nine too often. He was great against Quins. Not just the couple of flashy tries he scored, he gave us a lot of go forward and worked hard off the ball.”

Understanding how best to use a player who is still only 29 could almost be the equivalent of a new signing after a summer in which Rennie acknowledges he was largely inactive in the transfer market, apparently satisfied with the personnel changes he made a year ago and preferring, in this pre-season, to generate deeper collective understanding of what is required to get the club to the elite level they have long aspired to.

Early days as these are, there was some evidence of that in the performance of all three men given opportunities to fill the breach left by the departed Finn Russell. Rennie made it clear last season that he sees Pete Horne - absent from Saturday’s squad but among 10 big hitters set to be recalled for next weekend’s visit to Northampton - as a viable option at stand off, potentially partnering younger brother George. It could, though, get mighty competitive since, even if Jackson now seems more likely to be deployed most often at full-back where he looked re-born last season, Brandon Thomson had already done some excellent work, including delivering the scoring passes for the team’s first two tries, before new Scotland cap Hastings’ lovely little third quarter cameo.

Having started his time in Scotland with a record run of 10 successive Pro14 wins, Rennie also now has full understanding of the gulf between that competition and the real testing ground of Europe, further evidence of continued brittleness when real pressure is applied having been provided in Glasgow’s third loss in four years to Scottish rivals Edinburgh in the 1872 Challenge Cup series. Pretty much perennial Pro12/14 play-off qualifiers since their inception in 2011/12, Glasgow have failed to make any progress in terms of European Champions Cup contention in the interim, a trait which continued under Rennie last season as, in all too stark contrast to their Pro14 form, they lost the first five matches in their pool.

An eight-try romp against a team that finished joint-second bottom of the inferior English Premiership last season cannot offer much insight into whether they are set to improve on their dismal European record, but when invited to draw comparison between Gregor Townsend, the coach he initially played under at Glasgow and Rennie, there were some clues in Matawalu’s response that a need for change is being absorbed.

“I think they are (in some ways) similar and (in some ways) kinda like different. For me, I guess, we need to step up out of our comfort zone because Dave likes to be detailed, but when it’s time to play rugby, play rugby,” he said.

"Everyone enjoyed the game. We’ve been back five weeks preparing for the season. For 20 minutes it was a pretty tough game. Then there was lots going on, everyone expressing themselves and playing the sort of rugby that Dave is asking for.”

Telling, too, that the Kiwi head coach seemed to take most satisfaction from the way his forwards gradually took charge of the match against the English side, given the innate understanding of most New Zealanders that whatever the preferred style of play, the right to impose it must be earned.

This exhibition Famous Grouse Pre-Season Challenge in Perth offered some promise, then, but Rennie knows it will not be until the next visitors to Scotland arrive from Greater London when English champions Saracens come to Scotstoun for the first Champions Cup pool match on October 14 that we have evidence of whether Glasgow are finally ready to move on in real competitive terms from where they have been for the best part of a decade.