Expected victory, but Caley coach is not too overjoyed Dixon calls for more spirit from mercurial team

RUGBY realist Richie Dixon was not in the mood to celebrate on the gruelling return journey from Wales on Saturday night - despite having watched his side claim their first Celtic League success on principality soil.

Bolstered by World Cup returnees Shaun Longstaff and David Hilton (plus Gordon Bulloch on the bench), the Reds would have been expected to sweep aside the challenge of the basement club with more ease than they did.

Winger Longstaff himself marked his comeback with two fine tries, but other than that there was little for Dixon to enthuse over at Broadacre.

''Dunvant played with a great deal of heart and spirit - which we didn't do,'' confessed the coach. ''We performed reasonably well for the opening 15 minutes and then the closing stages, when our defence preserved our lead. It was not very satisfactory.''

Caley's success may have been of the scrappy variety, but in the wake of Edinburgh Reivers' win against Swansea on Friday, at least they managed to complete the second half of the first Scot-tish double victory since the competition began.

Longstaff said: ''I had been champing at the bit to be involved and the tries were a real bonus.''

After two early penalty misses by Tommy Hayes, the locals drew first blood in topical fashion as Simon Daniel landed a slick drop-goal. The strike seemed to act as a wake-up call for the Reds and in a well-worked move, the sharp-looking Longstaff came infield between his centres to coast over.

Caley were unable to build on their advantage immediately as Daniel put Dunvant back on the offensive with a long chip to the corner. Gavin Scott's throw was ruled squint and from the resulting scrum, No.8 Anthony Thomas drove hard and set up a ruck. When the ball came back Daniel produced his party piece of nudging ahead with his knee for centre Warren Lloyd to pounce.

The big Dunvant forwards tried to turn the screw, but Glasgow held them out at successive five-metre scrums before Hayes got back into the groove with a 42-metre penalty goal.

Longstaff, who could perhaps have made the line himself, saw a try chance go to waste when his pass to James Craig failed to stick, but the Reds put the setback behind them to surge ahead with the final action of the first half.

Hayes was the provider with a delightful lob through the home defence for centre Ian McInroy to slide over in the corner.

Longstaff had the Dunvant alarm bells ringing whenever he had the ball, his elusive running creating all sorts of problems for the home defence. It came as little surprise when he extended Caley's lead early in the second half with his second touchdown.

Hooker Scott was the unlikely provider, his deft kick splitting the defence for Longstaff to finish in style.

Dunvant refused to buckle, however, and two penalties from Daniel in the space of four minutes pulled them right back.

They grabbed the lead for the third time when scrum half Adrian Killa stole away from a ruck 30 metres out and raced over without challenge. Daniel added the conversion and then, with 18 minutes remaining, drilled over a fine drop goal to leave the Scots in trouble.

However, the Reds rallied just when it mattered and in 64 min-utes open-side flanker Donald McFadyen put them back in front.

From a shortened lineout Hayes and Bulloch did the spadework for McFadyen to profit and then Barry Irvine, who had replaced Hayes, fired over a penalty to make Dunvant pay for killing the ruck.

The home forwards tried desperately to rescue the points with fierce late pressure, but Caley dug deep to hold out.

Dunvant - W Lewis; E Harris, D Evans, W Lloyd, A Harris; S Daniel, A Killa; B Grace, E Evans, P Llewellyn, T Brott, E Katelau, S Jenkins, A Thomas, C Thomas. Replacements: E Faletau for Llewellyn, 53, P Matthews for Brott, 63, P Middleton for Jenkins, 59, G Davies for Lewis ,64, C Hawkins for E Evans 64.

Glasgow Caley - A Bulloch; J Craig, I McInroy, J Stuart, S Longstaff; T Hayes, G Beveridge; D Hilton, G Scott, G McIlwham, S Campbell, S Griffiths, J White, J Petrie, D McFadyen. Replacements: A Watt for Hilton 53, G Bulloch for Scott 53, B Irving for Hayes 63, A Bond for Craig 72.

Referee: H Watkins (Maesteg)

Scorers: Dunvant: Tries - Lloyd, Killa. Conversions - Daniel. Pens - Daniel (2). Drop goal - Daniel (2).

Glasgow: Tries - Longstaff (2), McInroy, McFadyen. Conversion- Hayes. Penalties - Hayes, Irving.

Scoring sequence: 3-0, 3-5, 10-5, 10-8, 10-13, half time, 10-20, 13-20, 16-20, 21-20, 24-20, 24-25, 24-28.