Adam Hastings earned his first ever man-of the-match award in one of the most impressive early performances since Finn Russell made his Glasgow breakthrough a few miles down the road in Cardiff.

The current Scotland outside half showed then he was a player of rare ability – Hastings showed a similar range of skills that mean he could well be the answer to filling that Glasgow No.10 shirt when Russell moves to France in the summer.

He scored the first try with an opportunistic run from a loose pass, got his backline moving and could kick the ball from 22 to 22 – but perhaps the most impressive part of his game was an ability to spot gaps behind the front line defence and the skill to use short kicks to exploit that.

He formed an exciting half-back partnership with George Horne which is likely to be seen much more often for Glasgow – and potentially for Scotland as well.

“It was my first ever man-of-the-match award, so I’ll take it,” admitted the 21-year-old after the game. “I don’t think I had the perfect game by any means, so I will just go back next week and keep working.

“I enjoyed playing, I enjoyed starting, I have made no secret of that, but there was a lot to improve on.”

Hastings is aware there is an opportunity with Russell set to move on, but is determined to make the most of playing with the current Scotland outside half before that happens next summer.

“Finn is a good guy, I get on with him really well and I am enjoying learning from him. I think for the rest of the season I will just pick his brain as much as I can,” he said, having made the move back to Scotland from Bath in the summer.

“Definitely that will be something for next season, there are always opportunities, so making that place mine next year will be at the forefront of my mind for sure.

“I made the decision to come back up because of potentially more game time and I have been getting a bit more so I am happy with that.

“Scottish rugby is in a good place, it has been on the rise for a few years and ~I think things are finally starting to click now. Gregor is doing a good job as a new coach, and they obviously have high quality coaches with Richard Cockerill in Edinburgh and Dave here in Glasgow so it is on the up.

“I would definitely want to be part of it, you want to be part of a winning team.

“The first try was a funny one but thankfully it just opened up for me. We do have a lot of depth and the younger boys seem to be stepping up so that is good news. I enjoy playing with George, we both like to run the ball so it is lovely.”

Glasgow coach Dave Rennie is likely to rest his international contingent after their impressive November, which may mean another opportunity for Hastings to impress when they face Cardiff Blues at Scotstoun on Friday.

“Again we have a few options at outside half, but he has been really good,” said Rennie, when asked about Hastings. “He is quite deceptive, his ability to see a bit of space in behind, he did well for a couple of tries and he is growing in confidence – I thought he was really strong today.

“Our job is to create depth, we found out a bit more about some of the guys today and they would have learnt about themselves as well so that is exciting I reckon.

“It is a case of managing those guys anyway. The Scotland guys won’t be available next week, they’ve had three international weekends so we will make sure that when they come back in they are raring to go. We will tell them to go away and work somewhere, they will have programmes to work on.”

Sunday’s trouncing of the Ospreys was only a second competitive start for Hastings, a similar stage to Russell when he came off the bench early in Cardiff back in 2013. Russell had a meteoric rise into the Scotland team a few months later, Hastings showed a similar ability.

The last time Scotland were challenging at rugby’s top table the way they have this November, Adam’s father Gavin was leading the way. If Scottish rugby is entering another golden period, then maybe there could be another Hastings at the forefront.