Glasgow Warriors reaction: Youngsters 'stand up to challenge' as players continue to love life under Franco Smith

The bonus-point victory over Zebre at Scotstoun moved Warriors up to second in the URC standings

Franco Smith praised his players for clicking straight back into gear as Glasgow defeated Dragons to move into second place in the United Rugby Championship.

It was Warriors’ first game in this competition since the end of December and their first action at all since two Champions Cup matches last month. The downtime, though, didn’t seem to hinder the Glasgow players as they ran in three tries in each half to claim a comprehensive bonus point 40-7 victory.

Head coach Smith said: “I’ll always be very thankful and happy for the win. The young guys stood up to the challenge and played with their heart on their sleeves. The execution was always going to be difficult after the break so, if we look across all the games today, there were a lot of errors. It takes a game or two to get back into the rhythm but it’s good we came away with a win. It was a good defensive effort and the boys made Glasgow Warriors proud.”

Glasgow Warriors' Facundo Cordero celebrates with Jamie Dobie (No 11) after scoring a second-half try against Dragons.

Stafford McDowall claimed two of those tries in a man-of-the-match performance but felt that Glasgow could still have been more clinical despite landing six scores. And he praised the depth of the squad as a mixture of youth and experience came together to land the victory.

The captain said: There are a lot of positives to take from tonight. We talked about at half time how we missed some opportunities though, so when we get to Treviso in a couple of weeks, we'll need to tighten up. That's the good thing about what we're doing here, we're never satisfied with what we've done.

“We scored some good tries here and will take the win but lots to improve on. We're building a great culture here, two boys coming in and getting their debuts and Jamie Bhatti on his 100th as well. So we had a mix of old boys and young boys who did a good job. It's been great for me. I'm really loving being part of this squad and what Franco and all of the other coaches are doing here. It's a great place to be at the moment."

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