Glasgow battle for bonus-point win

Editor

Glasgow picked up their second win over the season, but were pushed hard by Newport Gwent Dragons for a 29-15 success at Scotstoun.

Tries from Chris Fusaro, Zander Fagerson and Junior Bulumukau had Glasgow on their way to victory.

However Ashton Hewitt's late try, in addition to an early score from skipper from Rynard Landman kept it tight before a last-gasp try from Simone Favaro sealed the win and the five points.

Glasgow had lost their last two fixtures against Welsh regions but have not lost three in a row against those opponents since 2006. 

Rory Clegg opened the scoring with 12 minutes gone with a penalty but Sarel Pretorious then used a penalty advantage to snipe his way into space eventually offloading to Landman who slid over to give the Dragons a 7-3 lead with the help of Jason Tovey's conversion. 

A five-metre lineout gave Glasgow the platform to maul their way over the whitewash, and just as the Dragons looked like they were going to drive the opposition into touch Fusaro peeled away and slid over for a try. Clegg added the extras to put Glasgow ahead at 10-7. 

Debutant Taqele Naiyaravoro was shown yellow for taking out Aled Brew in the air and Tovey converted the subsequent penalty to leave the scores level at half time, 10-10. 

A quarter of an hour into the second half Naiyavaro took charge on the wing eventually setting up Fagerson for his first ever Glasgow try.  Once again Clegg nailed the conversion to give the champions a 17-10 lead. 

Favaro was shown yellow after 65 minutes reducing Glasgow to 14 men yet again. Then a kick into the Dragons' 22 took an awkward bounce, Bulumakau showed great footwork to knock the ball through and touch down. This time Clegg shanked the conversion attempt to restrict the lead to 22-10 with ten minutes to play. 

Hewitt crossed over with five minutes to go and despite the missed conversion, the visitors were within a converted try at 22-15. 

Another debutant Favaro killed any hopes of a Newport comeback on 79 minutes after he snuck over on the back of a concerted effort by the Glasgow pack. Clegg banged over the conversion to cap off an impressive bonus point win for the champions and secure all five points.

The scorers:

For Glasgow:
Tries: Fusaro, Fagerson, Bulumakau, Favaro
Cons: Clegg 3
Pen: Clegg
Yellow Cards: Naiyaravoro, Favaro

For Dragons:
Tries: Landman, Hewitt
Con: Tovey
Pen: Tovey 

Glasgow Warriors: 15 Rory Hughes, 14 Taqele Naiyaravoro, 13 Alex Dunbar, 12 Fraser Lyle, 11 Lee Jones, 10 Rory Clegg, 9 Grayson Hart, 8 Adam Ashe, 7 Chris Fusaro, 6 Hugh Blake, 5 Scott Cummings, 4 Rob Harley (c), 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Pat MacArthur, 1 Alex Allan.
Replacements: 16 Fergus Scott, 17 Jerry Yanuyanutawa, 18 Mike Cusack, 19 Greg Peterson, 20 Simone Favaro, 21 Mike Blair, 22 Gregor Hunter, 23 Junior Bulumakau.

Dragons: 15 Carl Meyer, 14 Ashton Hewitt, 13 Ross Wardle, 12 Adam Warren, 11 Aled Brew, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Ed Jackson, 7 Nic Cudd, 6 Lewis Evans, 5 Rynard Landman (c), 4 Nick Crosswell, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Boris Stankovich.
Replacements: 16 Rhys Buckley, 17 Phil Price, 18 Shaun Knight, 19 Matthew Screech, 20 Ollie Griffiths, 21 Luc Jones, 22 Charlie Davies, 23 Nick Scott.

Venue: Scotstoun, Glasgow
Referee: Gary Conway (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Neil Paterson, Stephen Hart (both SRU)
TMO: John Montgomery (SRU)