Glasgow Warriors were put to task tonight at Rodney Parade by the Newport Gwent Dragons as they went down 32-18.
It was a slow start to the game with both sides trading only a penalty each for nigh on the first half hour but as the Dragons took the lead with a second Craig Warlow penalty in the 27th minute, that was the catalyst for Jason Forster to cause the Warriors problems with two tries in quick successions (31 and 36 minutes), both converted by Warlow, both from short range line-out takes and forward drives and within that crucial ten minutes, Glasgow could only respond with one Dan Parks penalty.
The Warriors were dealt another blow well into first half stoppage time when Adam Black crossed the line for the Welsh side, taking the Dragons into the break with a handsome 25-6 lead. Adding to Glasgow’s woes, lock Dan Turner was yellow carded, missing five minutes either side of the break.
Glasgow coach Sean Lineen had stated earlier in the week that he wanted to see different combinations of players line-up for Glasgow with one eye on next season, so being 19 points adrift going into the second half, he took the opportunity to ring the changes and started the latter half of the game with three changes – Fergus Thomson for Scott Lawson, Colin Gregor coming on at scrum half for Sam Pinder and James Eddie for Tim Barker.
However, it took both sides a while to settle back into the game, meanwhile Glasgow made another change – Donnie Macfadyen for John Barclay - and it was another 17 minutes before more points were put on the board, this time for the Warriors as Dan Parks crossed the line with some jinky running for the try and slotted the conversion, closing the gap to 12 points (25-13).
That margin was relatively short lived when the Dragons’ Nathan Brew touched down five minutes later and converted his own try. The rest of the Warriors bench came on as reinforcements – Ben Prescott for Euan Murray, Andrew Wilson for Jon Petrie and Spencer Davey for Graydon Staniforth – and winger Colin Shaw responded with a try in the 70th minute before former Glasgow favourite Andy Hall came on for the Dragons, but that’s where the scoring ended (32-18) and the Warriors failed to slay the Dragons, going down to their fifth straight defeat in the Celtic League since February’s win over Munster.
WARRIORS
1 - Kevin Tkachuk, 2 - Scott Lawson, 3 - Euan Murray, 4 - Tim Barker, 5 - Dan Turner, 6 - John Beattie, 7 - John Barclay, 8 - Jon Petrie (captain), 9 - Sam Pinder, 10 - Dan Parks, 11 - Colin Shaw, 12 - Andrew Henderson, 13 - Hefin O'Hare, 14 - Rory Lamont, 15 - Graydon Staniforth
Replacements: 16 - Fergus Thomson (for Lawson 41 mins), 17 - Ben Prescott (for Murray 65 mins), 18 - James Eddie (for Barker 41 mins), 19 - Andrew Wilson (for Petrie 65 mins), 20 - Donnie Macfadyen (for Barclay 55 mins), 21 - Colin Gregor (for Pinder 41 mins), 22 - Spencer Davey (for Staniforth 65 mins),
Referee: David Keane (IRFU). Touch Judges: Howard Hopkins (WRU), David Williams (WRU)

This article was posted on 28-Apr-2006, 21:30 by Hugh Barrow.