| Parks Kicks Gritty Glasgow Past The Dragons |
Newport Gwent Dragons |
6 - 12 |
Glasgow Warriors |
| Rodney Parade Att: 4,113 |
| Friday 5th September 2008, 19:05 |
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| Scotland international Dan Parks did the business for Glasgow Warriors in difficult conditions at Rodney Parade on Friday as his four penalty successes guided the visitors to their first win on the opening weekend of the Magners League in five years. |
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| Dragons winger Richard Fussell and Glasgow scrum half Mark McMillan tussle for possession during Friday's Magners League clash at Rodney Parade |
| © Huw Evans Agency |
Beaten 30-8 by Gloucester in their most recent pre-season friendly, after which coach Sean Lineen described them as 'dreadful', Glasgow showed plenty of grit in the Welsh rain to carve out what could prove to be a very valuable away win, as the season progesses.
In atrocious conditions, Lineen's men built the foundations for this win on their rock-solid defence which frustrated the Dragons throughout.
The hosts, hoping to impress coach Paul Turner and watching Wales supremo Warren Gatland, were also bidding to make 'a statement of intent' according to new captain Tom Willis.
But the wintry weather ruined their chances of showing their full armoury of skills and play was largely funnelled through the packs, with tactical kicking the order of the evening for the respective number 10s.
Parks, the Australian-born Scotland international, took the honours in that regard, especially during the second half when his kick out-of-hand kept the Dragons at bay and his team on the move.
Historically, Glasgow have struggled against the Dragons in league fare - last March's 20-14 win for the Warriors at this very venue ended a run of seven straight defeats to the Welsh region.
And Turner's charges did get off to the better start in this league opener as New Zealand out-half James Arlidge, one of seven summer signings starting for the Dragons, eased his nerves by slotting a fifth-minute penalty.
The sides went in at half-time locked level at 3-3 after Parks had kicked Glasgow's opening points in the 27th minute - he had missed an earlier place kick.
Try-scoring chances were predictably limited on the rain-soaked pitch and clean scrums were also hard to come by as both packs struggled to gain a set-piece advantage.
Referee George Clancy was right on top of things in terms of spotting scrum infringements and the Irishman kept a tight control on the whole game.
The Dragons had more of the ball in the opening 40 minutes but could not make that pressure tell and Glasgow had their purple patch on the restart.
Parks kicked his side ahead, with a superb long range penalty, and he was unfortunate to miss a follow-up effort in the 53rd minute.
In between, the Glasgow number 10 almost created a couple of tries for right winger Lome Fa'atau.
A Parks kick right down the Dragons' centre had the home defence in trouble and in better conditions Fa'atau may have been able to ground the ball instead of knocking it over the end line.
From a subsequent scrum, Parks looked for the Samoan speedster again. He found him with a looping pass out to his wing but the wide man, with the try line in sight, failed to gather the ball over his head.
The Dragons just about survived, however a critical moment in the match came in the 59th minute when the home side lost replacement full-back Shaun Connor to the sin-bin.
Referee Clancy spotted a tug by Connor on Thom Evans as the Glasgow winger chased his own kick through.
Parks kicked the resulting penalty for a 9-3 lead and while the Dragons immediately got back within scoring range with two kickable penalties, their decisions to go for the corner on both occasions failed to pay off.
All of Glasgow's defensive work came to the fore as they frustated the Dragons time and again and Parks picked off his fourth penalty success, five minutes from time, to put more than a converted try between the sides.
The Scots did have to endure some nerve-jangling moments in the closing stages as they had number 8 Johnnie Beattie sin-binned for lying on the wrong side of a ruck.
Connor popped the penalty for that infringement through the posts but that effort was only good enough to secure a losing bonus point for the Dragons.
Glasgow had muddied man-of-the-match Parks to thank for a victory which broke the club's record for successive league victories - they won their last five games last season and this opening win makes it six on the trot. |
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| First half timeline |
| 5 | Newport Gwent Dragons | Penalty kick - J Arlidge |
| 19 | Newport Gwent Dragons | Substitution - S Connor on for A Smith |
| 27 | Glasgow Warriors | Penalty kick - D Parks |
| Second half timeline |
| 43 | Glasgow Warriors | Penalty kick - D Parks |
| 56 | Glasgow Warriors | Substitution - R Jackson on for L Fa'atau |
| 59 | Newport Gwent Dragons | Yellow card - S Connor |
| 60 | Glasgow Warriors | Penalty kick - D Parks |
| 60 | Glasgow Warriors | Substitution - K Tkachuk on for J Va'a |
| 60 | Glasgow Warriors | Substitution - O Palepoi on for T Barker |
| 63 | Newport Gwent Dragons | Substitution - H Gustafson on for A Black |
| 64 | Newport Gwent Dragons | Substitution - J Ringer on for L Evans |
| 74 | Newport Gwent Dragons | Substitution - L Harrison on for R Thomas |
| 74 | Newport Gwent Dragons | Substitution - G Webb on for R Parks |
| 75 | Glasgow Warriors | Penalty kick - D Parks |
| 79 | Glasgow Warriors | Yellow card - J Beattie |
| 80 | Newport Gwent Dragons | Penalty kick - S Connor |
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