Sale’s disappointment at launching their Champions Cup campaign with a home defeat was put into context by the sudden death of their former lock Hyron Andrews.

The father-of-two, who made 45 appearances for the Sharks before joining the Johannesburg Lions in the summer, was found unresponsive in the South African club’s team hotel in France on Friday ahead of their Champions Cup fixture against La Rochelle.

Alex Sanderson, Sale’s director of rugby, refused to blame the shock of Andrews’s sudden passing for the result but said he and his squad were collectively grieving the loss of a popular former team-mate.

“That kind of news levels you and it puts into clear focus what’s important, who’s important, and why Hyron was very important to us, his family still are, as each of them are to each other,” Sanderson said.

“It’s my job to reframe and communicate – that’s what I’m getting paid to do – and I struggled on both counts. But I thought how the lads pitched up, particularly how they started, was a testament to how tight the group is. They’ve been pulling in together over the last 12 hours.

“We weren’t wanting to weaponise it but we wanted to play and do right by him. Regardless of how traumatic and how devastating it is – and it is – the wheels still turn, life carries on and kick-off is at one o’clock.

“I don’t think that the emotional levels of the lads were what affected the performance because the theme has been similar over the past four weeks: poor concentration and ill-discipline in and around the middle third. That penny has to drop and the sooner that drops, the sooner we’ll be putting good teams.

“You can’t afford to give Glasgow that many opportunities because they’re too good, as they showed today.”

Glasgow finished comfortable winners with Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu man of the match at the CorpAcq Stadium and younger brother Tavi, who made his debut, came off the bench to score the Warriors’ seventh and final try in the 75th minute.

Under Europe’s tweaked bonus-point rules this season that gave Glasgow the extra point, with a three-try differential over Sale. Glasgow captain Kyle Steyn, who scored one of the tries on his first appearance of the season, welcomed the initiative.

“It’s definitely a great dynamic because to pick up a bonus point now is really difficult,” he said. “I think it’s going to be more of a reward. The significance of those bonus points is going to be felt.”

The Warriors scored three of their tries from driving mauls. Defending them has been a challenge for every side this season after World Rugby’s directive to clean up the area, but with the visitors flooding in extra numbers Sale were powerless to stop it.

After the Sharks had struck twice inside the opening 10 minutes through Ben Curry and the first of Arron Reed’s two touchdowns, they conceded a penalty try trying to stop a rumbling line-out drive.

The offence saw Sale scrum-half Gus Warr sin-binned by referee Craig Evans and Tom Roebuck, making his first appearance of the season after a calf problem, followed almost immediately for a trip on Steyn. With Sale down to 13, Steyn and Jamie Dobie both crossed.

Glasgow extended their 21-15 half-time lead when second row Alex Craig went over six minutes after the interval and although George Ford put Rekeiti Ma’asi-White in for a converted try just before the hour to cut the deficit to four points, the home side were unable to reel the Warriors in.

Rory Darge’s maul try eased them further clear and while an outstanding offload from Sale full-back Joe Carpenter put Reed in for his second try, Glasgow made the game safe through Ollie Smith. Tuipulotu junior, Glasgow’s replacement hooker, then rounded off the scoring from a 12-man maul.

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