The 2016–17 season would be Townsend's last at Glasgow, with the announcement of him taking charge of the Scottish national side in June 2017, replacing Vern Cotter when his contract expired. In that season, Glasgow failed to make the Pro 12 play-off's for the first time since the 2010–11 Celtic League season. Up until that point, they were the only club to have made all the play-offs under the current Pro 12 format. However, Glasgow did make the knockout stage of the 2016–17 European Rugby Champions Cup, only to fall against Saracens in the quarter-finals 38–13. This was the first Glasgow side to make the top tier competition play-off in Europe, since the 1997–98 Heineken Cup, though Glasgow did make the second tier competition knockout stage during the 2006–07 European Challenge Cup.