Welcome win but there’s still work to be done by Warriors
IS it really carping to complain about a five-tries-toone bonus point win that shifts the team to the top of their conference? In this case, no, it’s not.
There were positives in Glasgow’s 29-13 win over Dragons, plenty of them, but there were also enough enough missed scoring chances to leave Dave Rennie, the head coach, admitting there is still work to be done.
At least it was better than the week before when the side made every mistake in the book in going down to defeat against the Southern Kings in Port Elizabeth.
For a start, they did score five tries and the only try they conceded was from a dropped pass which was hacked through for visiting centre Adam Warren to get there first.
It could also be crucial for the European tie against Saracens in a fortnight that the set piece was top notch, though there is a severe limit to how much Glasgow should read into that given that the Dragons had rested a number of frontline players.
Still, Jonny Gray ruled the line out and Oli Kebble came through a sticky opening, when he could do nothing right in the eyes of referee Stuart Berry.
It was an impressive all-round performance from the South African prop who claimed his first try for Glasgow in the opening minutes, went on to lead the tackle count.
“He is a big man,” Rennie said. “I have not seen him score too many tries and he looked pretty excited. The scrum was dominant, he was a beast in that area. It is great to have him back in the squad.”
Dragons’ main mission was to make sure they targetted Adam Hastings at fly-half to stop the ball getting out to the dangerous backs.
“We need to be a bit more clinical,” Rennie added. “We had a few more opportunities and should have taken them. They were trying conditions but we created lots of opportunities – but we want to be more clinical.
“Having said that, if we had put 50 on the board, that would not be good for us either. We had to work for that. We are happy with a bonus-point win but will have to be better next week [against Zebre] and the week after [the Saracens Heineken Champions Cup opener].”