THIS was a victory for style and substance, extending an unbeaten run of nine matches and with a point made ahead of these two sides meeting in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup in Glasgow.

Also the six players released by Scotland to gain extra match practice all came through unscathed, so all in all it was a good trip to South Wales for Glasgow as they maintained their pressure on the top four in the URC.

The home team struggled to cope with the constant probing of the Glasgow backs, while the visiting forwards were also keen to get into the act with a couple of line-out drive tries and a solid platform in the bonus-point win.

Not that coach Franco Smith was getting too carried away.

“That was not perfect,” he said at a ground where he spent a spell in his own playing career.

“It was good to get the result, it was good to get five points out of it, I felt we scored some nice tries, while those that were disallowed stopped the momentum a little bit.

“I am grateful for the result, nobody is hurt, our Scotland squad players did well, they obviously needed a bit of time out on the pitch so the way we have managed them all added value to the club.

“I do not want to look back, we will step on to the challenge ahead, manage these next two weeks and then we have three very important games including a trip to South Africa to play the Lions in the middle of the Six Nations.

“Having played here in Newport myself I know the pride here, I know the dressing rooms very well, so I always knew it was going to be a big challenge, we just wanted to get the points that we did.

“We are not looking at the table, we know we have to keep playing well. If we want to compete in the final parts of the competition then we need to improve.

“In the last six months we have put in 80 per cent and the next 20 per cent will take a year, a lot of detail is still to be done.”

Glasgow nailed their colours to the mast early on, keeping the ball in hand, looking to spread the ball wide round the blitz defence, but even they must have been surprised how well that panned out in the opening minutes.

Captain Stafford McDowall, one of the players released by Scotland ahead of the Six Nations next weekend, made the half break and off-load to put fellow centre Sam Johnson through with left wing Cole Forbes picking a good line to score the try.

Then the forwards got in the act, a series of penalties and line-out drives resulting in hooker Fraser Brown getting the try.

But just as it looked as though Glasgow might run away with it, the Dragons scored two quick-fire tries of their own, scrum-half Rhodri Williams picking a gap near a ruck on the line and centre Sio Tompkinson picking off an interception. JJ Hanrahan converted both and suddenly the scores were tied.

Brown got his second line-out drive try to put his team back ahead, the score surviving a TMO review.

Dragons hooker Brodie Coghlan was yellow carded for a daft block on Glasgow scrum-half Ali Price, and the visitors were able to take advantage of the extra man with Duncan Weir scoring after the ball went backwards from a Forbes fumble. He converted his own try to restore the 14-point lead and maintain his perfect kicking record.

It looked as though that had been extended when lock Lewis Bean went over early in the second half, only to be denied by the TMO. However a few minutes later McDowall sliced through the Dragons defence for a deserved score after a line-out drive had ground to a halt.

Once again the Dragons came back, No.8 Taine Basham forcing his way over – again after a line-out drive.

However it was Glasgow who sealed a runaway victory when wing Sebastian Cancelliere picked off a Hanrahan pass near his own line and raced 90 yards unopposed.

Jamie Dobie had come on for Price shortly after half time and thought he had scored a superb individual effort, only for the TMO to get involved once again and disallow the score for obstruction.

So it was the Dragons who had the last word, replacement prop Chris Coleman going over from close range for the try scoring bonus point with Hanrahan maintaining his perfect record with the conversions.

Scorers, Dragons – Tries: R Williams, Tomkinson, Basham, Coleman. Cons: Hanrahan 4.

Glasgow Warriors – Tries: Forbes, Brown 2, Weir, McDowall, Cancelliere. Cons: Weir 5, Jordan.

Dragons: J Williams (S Davies 64); J Rosser (S Hughes 49), S Tomkinson, J Dixon, A Hewitt; J Hanrahan, R Williams (Capt, L Jones 70); R Jones (A Seiuli 48), B Coghlan (J Benjamin 70), L Fairbrother (C Coleman 48), M Screech, B Carter, G Nott (B Fry 40, J Benjamin 41-48), S Lonsdale (H Taylor 70), T Basham.

Glasgow Warriors: J McKay; S Cancelliere, S McDowall (Capt), S Johnson, C Forbes; D Weir (T Jordan 66) A Price (J Dobie 45), J Bhatti (N McBeth 65), F Brown (J Matthews 65), S Berghan (L Sordoni 65), L Bean, J du Preez (A Samuel 75), T Gordon (C Neild 65), S Vailanu, J Dempsey (E Ferrie 75),

Referee: Frank Murphy (Ireland). Attendance: 4,624.