Both the joy and despair generated within the club by this week's British & Irish Lions tour party announcement can help fuel Glasgow Warriors' RaboDirect Pro12 title bid, according to Pat MacArthur.

The 25-year-old who came close to making a Scotland debut during the Six Nations Championship when he was an unused replacement in the meeting with Italy was not one of the Warriors who was in the running. That left him in a good position to assess the reaction of all concerned and after Stuart Hogg and Sean Maitland were included while clubmate Ryan Grant, Scotland's vice-captain, had most reason to be disappointed, MacArthur reckoned all will respond well.

"We trained early in the morning so that we could come in for the announcement and the whole team are behind all the boys who are up for it, congratulations to the two lads who were in the team. It is a shame Ryan didn't get in but he will bounce back from that," he said.

"We're such a tight-knit squad, as soon as the announcement was made, we shook hands with those who got in then went over to Ryan and did the same. Then we were straight back into afternoon training and everyone's heads were switched back on to Glasgow."

With such fluctuating emotions at such a difficult time of the season it has the potential to be a tricky situation to manage.

For all their determination to commit fully to their club it could be very difficult for Hogg and Maitland to focus fully on the task in hand such will be their excitement, not to mention the knowledge that there has been many a slip twixt cup and lip for players who have missed Lions tours through injury after being named in squads.

To varying degrees, Grant and others could be demoralised, depending on how much they bought into speculation about their chances of making the Lions tour.

Gregor Townsend, their head coach who said yesterday that he felt more Scots should be making the trip with the Lions, believes the response will only be a positive one from all concerned, however.

"Stuart and Sean will be buzzing and desperate to play in the big games we've got coming up," he said.

"It's great that we've guaranteed a semi and we'll be looking to put our best team out for that. There will be a determination, a confidence and buzz from those selected and there will be an equal determination from those not selected to go out there and play at their best. The Connacht game and potentially Leinster the following week if results go to plan are massive games, away games probably. You can only bounce back whether it's a poor performance or bad news selection-wise by taking the opportunity to have a big game and I'm sure Ryan will do that.

"Ryan's a professional. He'll be disappointed, a number of players playing this weekend will be disappointed not to have made the tour because it's the ultimate for any British and Irish rugby player, but what you want to do is get back out there and play.

"It's great that Ryan's in such good form, we've got some big games coming up and there's a Scotland tour this summer, so he can get out there and keep playing at the level he's been playing at. I had a good chat with him . . . he wanted his thoughts to himself. It's difficult when some guys are celebrating, but he's very determined to carry on the way he's playing. If there are any injuries – which is likely on a Lions tour – I'm sure Ryan's one of the first names they'll be thinking about to replace the props."

Townsend accepted, however, that the only real gain they are likely to get should they win in Connacht for the first time in six years will be in terms of momentum going into the play-offs, since a home semi-final is probably out of reach since they cannot overhaul leaders Ulster or second-placed Leinster if both win tomorrow.

"It's out of our hands, we've no influence on Ospreys-Leinster game," he said.

"Leinster are in great form, they had a terrific win over Biarritz [in last weekend's Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final]. It's a tough match against Ospreys but we expect them to win that game."