Dragons 18 - 5 Glasgow: Warriors put up little resistance

This was a team in all black kit against a team in all white, but any other similarities between this and the World Cup semi-final before it were purely incidental.

Glasgow's Kiran McDonald had a try disallowed. Picture: Ross MacDonald/SNS

If Glasgow Warriors coach Dave Rennie is still awaiting confirmation for his next move to becoming coach of Australia, it’s unlikely this will be on his highlights reel.

From plotting his way to a win against the Dragons in Newport to trying to topple the likes of World Cup semi-finalists England and New Zealand will be quite a stretch. It was a subject where he had nothing to add to previous statements at the end of the game.

He preferred to concentrate on what went wrong for his team. “We kicked poorly, did not look after the ball for long enough, could not build enough pressure and lost a lot of those key battles,” was his verdict.

While conditions were difficult,that was not enough of an excuse for the low quality from both sides with Glasgow playing into the wind and the rain first half.

Outside half Brandon Thomas was not exactly playing in typical South African conditions, but this was a performance to forget.

However, the Dragons were not much better, only really offering the kick downfield with the wind as a first-half tactic. They earned two penalty kicks from outside half Sam Davies, one from close range and one from half way, to have a mere 6-0 lead at half-time.

That was soon extended to 13, however. A fumbled high kick which should have been routinely taken and suddenly the Dragons had impetus inside the Glasgow half.

Ashton Hewitt provided the pace with a run up the centre before he was hauled down short of the posts. Flanker Taine Basham went over from the ruck and Davies added the extras.

Worse was to follow as a Thomson kick just inside their half was charged down. Sam Davies hacked through but lost control, the ball bounced away from a host of Glasgow defenders and in the end Hewitt was able to get enough of a touch for the try.

Thomson was replaced by Ruaridh Jackson immediately after.

Glasgow continued to struggle as the wind dropped, lock Kiran McDonald having a try disallowed just before full time by the TMO while replacement centre Huw Jones did get a well-taken try in injury time to give the scoreline a slightly better gloss.