Glasgow Warriors lost their first away game of the Magners League season this afternoon after experiencing a rousing start to the campaign at home to Leinster last week.
The Warriors’ only try of the game came from lock Richie Gray with stand-off Ruaridh Jackson adding two penalties.
The Dragons put the first points on the board when the Warriors were penalised for not rolling away at the contact. Jason Tovey slotted the penalty before being replaced early in the game with a troublesome foot, 3-0.
Ruaridh Jackson replied six minutes later after the Dragons were caught defending offside, 3-3.
Tovey’s replacement, Matthew Jones, edged the Dragons into the lead with another penalty before the first try was scored.
The Dragons formed a rolling maul from a line-out and giant second row Robin Sowden-Taylor peeled off the back to touch down. Jones converted, 13-3.
The home side again tried desperately to penetrate the Glasgow defence, going through a phase of sevens-style offloading play.
Winger Aled Brew came off his wing to cut a nice inside angle and received the ball to cross in the left hand corner. Jones converted, 20-3.
A further Jones penalty gave the Dragons a 20-point lead at half-time, 23-3.
Half-time score: Dragons 23-3 Warriors
Glasgow began the second half brightly, despite trailing by such a considerable margin.
A wide pass from Jackson found flanker Richie Vernon whose footwork opened up a small hole in the Dragons’ defensive line. Vernon slipped through and showed good awareness to spot Richie Gray in support.
Gray battered through two defenders to find the line. Jackson didn’t connect with the ball and hit the right post with the conversion attempt.
Replacement Hefin O’Hare, who came onto the left wing for Federico Aramburu, tried to enhance the momentum gained, showing the same kind of footwork that has won him the Try of the Season award for the last two years running. He offloaded to stand-in captain Bernardo Stortoni, but the fullback couldn’t get the ball away cleanly to Jackson and knocked on.
A sublime penalty from Jackson 55 metres from the posts, just before he was replaced by Duncan Weir, was to be the last real act of the game.
The last 24 minutes were played out without a score but Glasgow did well to weather another ten minute period when down to 14 men as DTH van der Merwe was yellow-carded for retaliating to a late tackle.
Final score: Dragons 23-11 Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons: Matthew Evans; Will Harries, Tom Riley, Pat Leach, Aled Brew; Jason Tovey, Wayne Evans; Hugh Gustafson, Steve Jones, Nigel Hall, Luke Charteris, Scott Morgan, Danny Lydiate, Robin Sowden-Taylor, Gavin Thomas
Substitutes: Lloyd Burns, Pat Palmer, Ali McKenzie, Rob Sidoli, Lewis Evans, Matthew Pewtner, Nicky Griffiths, Matthew Jones
Glasgow Warriors: Bernardo Stortoni CAPTAIN; DTH van der Merwe, Max Evans, Graeme Morrison, Federico Aramburu; Ruaridh Jackson, Henry Pyrgos; Jon Welsh, Fergus Thomson, Ed Kalman, Tom Ryder , Richie Gray, Chauncey O'Toole, Calum Forrester, Richie Vernon

This article was posted on 12-Sep-2010, 18:10 by Hugh Barrow.