Franco Smith refuses to blame officials for Glasgow Warriors' defeat at Exeter Chiefs

That meant it was Henry Slade’s 78th-minute conversion that proved to be the telling intervention in a game that Glasgow dominated for much of the first half before being pinned back by their hosts for much of the second.

It was that, rather than the Ferrie call, that most annoyed Smith afterwards as he picked over the bones of a frenetic contest at Sandy Park which the home team edged 19-17.

The South African said: “It would have been good to have won it that way but it was not to be. It’s always tough. Both teams had shoulders off in the scrum. But I’m not going to criticise that decision. We didn’t lose the game there. We shouldn’t have given away that last try and in the second half we weren’t on it as much as we had been in the first.

“It was more down to what Exeter did than what we did. I’m not going to take anything away from them. They’re at home, they worked hard and they played well. We let them get under our skin. So it wasn’t about what we did wrong, it was what they did well that made the difference.”

Glasgow will likely need to defeat Toulon at home on Friday evening if they are to join Exeter in the last 16 of the competition.

Smith added: “We’ll just look to kick on from what we did here. There was some excellent stuff. It was just a pity not to get a very important away win at a difficult place. We’ll just concentrate now on the Toulon game.”

Exeter's director of rugby Rob Baxter praised his side's resilience. "The lads have something in them, almost a never-say-die attitude,” he said. "Close finishes seem to be happening every week and it is certainly no good for the blood pressure.”