Dragons swept aside in a dominant Warriors display
GLASGOW WARRIORS 33 DRAGONS 14 This was the sort of performance Danny Wilson and his Glasgow Warriors team were looking for to exorcise the painful memory of last weekend’s last-minute loss to Benetton.
The team clicked in every area and two late tries from the Dragons gave the final scoreline a complexion which did not reflect the true balance of this match
The hosts started like a team with a point to prove, but it took them a while to really hit their groove.
Maybe they were just a bit too anxious to set things right, but their accuracy wasn’t quite where it needed to be.
It wasn’t until the 15th minute that they broke the deadlock when an offside penalty was kicked to the corner and a clean line-out take allowed Sione Tuipulotu to run on to Ali Price’s pass like a runaway train.
Ross Thompson added the conversion and with nerves settled, Warriors soaked up the Dragons’ riposte, producing a series of disciplined defensive sets.
Warriors extended their lead on 26 minutes with a try which was redolent of the glory days during the height of the Gregor Townsend era, back in 2015, with new boy Josh Mckay announcing his arrival at the club with a jinking run through a crowd of white jerseys.
Good work by Sebastian Cancelliere kept the move going, and when a quick recycle sent the ball back in field, Thompson had the vision, poise and technique to fire an inch-perfect cross-kick to the unmarked Kyle Steyn, who had the simplest of run-ins.
You could almost see the self-belief returning to the home side, and it looked like try number three was on the cards when Jack Dempsey escaped up the side of a ruck on halfway then sent Ali Price streaking into space.
The scrum-half chipped the last man but George Turner couldn’t quite gather after the ball took an awkward bounce.
That meant Warriors had to wait until the last minute of the half before striking again, with the home pack shoving the Dragons scrum off their own ball and Dempsey rampaging home from 30-yards, riding tackles from Dan Babos and Sam Davies on his way to the line.
Dragons showed a bit more resolve in the second half, and an excellent chip-and-chase from Sam Davies had Warriors in trouble, requiring an excellent, try-saving tackle from Josh Mckay.
Warriors weathered that ministorm and then snatched the bonus-point try when Dempsey sniffed out another gap at the edge of a ruck.
He carried deep into the Dragons 22 and Price bustled over a few phases later.
The win was in the bag, but Warriors were pumped-up, and they defended ferociously as
Dragons went in search of some consolation points.
Too ferociously, as it happens, because they gave away a few needless penalties and ended up conceding a try to hooker Ellis Shipp.
But it was only a temporary lapse, and the hosts then charged further ahead with a try from Johnny Matthews, which was converted by the excellent Thompson, in his last act of the match before being replaced at stand-off by another debutant in Argentinean Domingo Miotti.
Dragons got a second consolation try through Mesake Doge but the game was over as a contest.