A WIN'S a win and perhaps, this early in the season, the really valuable ones are those where the team get the job done, including the bonus point, but still comes away dissatisfied – feeling they have the potential to play a lot better.

That is where Glasgow Warriors are after this game with Dave Rennie, the head coach, not having to work too hard to keep players' feet on the ground despite claiming all the available points against one of their main conference rivals and one of the teams to have won at Scotstoun last season.

"We have got to understand we got away with it there," he said. "The game was a hell of a lot closer than 31-10, if they had nailed a couple of their opportunities then it is an arm wrestle. Look, we have a good bunch of men who work hard for each other but if we have aspirations of winning things, we have to be better."

For the third match running they struggled in the first half, coming good after the break. On top of that, it will be hard to beat the likes of Munster, Glasgow's next opponents at Scotstoun, with one third of the possessions and territory while also missing 35 tackles.

That also, however, demonstrates a measure of resilience. The Ospreys may have felt hard done by, but the four outside backs, Alex Dunbar at outside centre, the two wings and the full back, had a quiet time in defence, between them making only 14 of the team's 182 tackles as the Welsh tried to muscle their way through the middle.

The large number of missed tackles was also partly because the players had the freedom to fly out of line to pressure the opposition in the firm knowledge that their colleagues would plug the gap they left.

It worked too. Two of the Glasgow tries came from players putting pressure on Sam Davies, the Ospreys fly half, as he passed. One was scooped from the deck by Dunbar to run 50 metres for the first try, another was plucked out of the air by Adam Ashe, the No.8, who ran in from a similar distance for the third.

The first of those was thanks to one of the undoubted successes of the afternoon in Callum Gibbins, the New Zealand flanker making his debut. With a total of 21 tackles over the course of the game, he comfortably led the defensive statistics.

"We were in defence quite a bit but it was a nice fast game, really enjoyable – when we had the ball," he said. "We work a lot on our defence. It's fun with the ball but it's also pretty fun when we’re getting off the line and putting pressure on them. We did pretty well there. It was good."

Gibbins arrived in Scotland a month ago – psyching himself up for life here by watching Braveheart on the plane over, he said – but after a long Super Rugby season with the Hurricanes has been held back until he had had a chance to freshen up.

Like many New Zealanders he has Scottish blood in his background. "My Nan was big on her Scottish heritage – she reckons she comes from the Munro clan. I did a bit of research on Stirling and the bridge and how William Wallace and Robert the Bruce did a bit of stuff there," he recalled.

"It was quite cool for the first game [the friendly against Northampton Saints] that we got out there to see it. My family has always had a bit of fascination with Scotland so it is pretty cool to be here."

Given that and his history of being coached by Rennie at Manawatu, there was never much doubt Gibbins would come to Scotland when Rennie rang him and invited him over, and after his break, he is raring to go.

"We worked at what we needed to do," Gibbins added. "Those intercepts could be seen as pretty lucky, but if you work on defence and put a lot of pressure on teams you find that they come more often than not."

After going into half time with the scores level, Dan Evans the Ospreys full back, cancelling out Dunbar's opening try, Glasgow controlled the scoreboard for the rest of the game.

Finn Russell, who had looked a bit rusty on his return to action, set up the second try with a tap penalty finished by Leonardo Sarto, and late in the game, Dunbar crashed his way over for the bonus point try seconds after he had been announced as man of the match.

It may have been a flattering scoreline, but it makes a change for the Scots to be the ones handing out a lesson in winning off scraps thanks to clinical finishing skills.

Scorers: Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Dunbar (15, 77), Sarto (53), Ashe (60). Cons: Russell 4. Pen: Russell (19)

Ospreys: Try: Evans (21). Con: Davies. Pen: Davies (40)

Scoring sequence (Glasgow Warriors first): 7-0, 10-0, 10-7, 10-10 (half time), 17-10, 24-10, 31-10

Glasgow Warriors: R Jackson; L Jones, A Dunbar (N Grigg, 69-72), P Horne (N Grigg, 72, R Hughes (L Sarto, 45); F Russell, A Price (H Pyrgos, 61); J Bhatti (O Kebble, 53-62), G Turner (P MacArthur, 67), Z Fagerson (D Rae, 61), T Swinson, S Cummings (B Alainu’uese, 63), R Wilson (C), C Gibbins, A Ashe (M Fagerson, 63).

Ospreys: D Evans; K Giles, K Fonotia, C Allen (J Hook, 62), J Hassle (J Baker, 72); S Davies, T Habberfield (R Morgan-Williams, 72); P James (N Smith, 47), S Parry (S Otten, 45), M Fia (R Jones, 55), B Davies (sin bin: 77-end), L Ashley (A Beard, 45), O Cracknell (G Mercer, 72), J Tipuric (C), J King.

Referee: M Mitrea (Italy)

Attendance: 7,351