Glasgow Warriors let themselves down ultimately in last season's European Champions Cup, according to utility back Ollie Smith, who says they can make up for it this time round.

Franco Smith's side tore through the pool stage, winning every match to top their section and earn home ties in the last 16 and then the quarter-finals.

They took care of the South African side Bulls but were beaten at home 22-19 by Toulon in the last eight.

This season's campaign begins, like last term, away to English Premiership side Sale Sharks, where Warriors won 26-21 despite trailing 14-0 in a thrilling match in Manchester.

Smith says getting off to a flier this season could do wonders for their European aspirations.

"I think you saw what happened last year," he said. "It just gave us that real confidence to back ourselves against European competition.

"It's a really tough place to go down there and it's quite hostile. If we can come away with a win like we did last year, it really catapulted us on to bigger and better things in the competition.

"We did so well getting to that top spot. Home play-offs and stuff like that and then maybe let ourselves down in the quarter-finals. I think we missed an opportunity last season. We'll be looking to flip that this time."

Although Warriors are unbeaten so far this season, with two wins and a draw in the United Rugby Championship, Smith feels they'll have to improve to get their European adventure off to a winning start.

"It'll be massive to get us going because we've been a bit rocky these first three games," he said.

"It's not been pretty the whole time. We're looking for an 80-minute performance and this is a pretty good platform to do it."

Smith thinks that Warriors will have to tighten up defensively to profit from the new differential bonus-point system, with teams having to score three more tries than their opponent to benefit instead of just four or more tries.

"We're a team that, on average, I think scores more than four tries a game," he added.

"So it's definitely a focus for us to just keep scoring. But it's maybe more a case of not letting other teams score."