A WIN, at least, but that is about all that can be said of Glasgow's performance against their bogey team.

They had come into the match knowing that a bonus-point win by a margin of more than 28 points would move them back to top spot in the Guinness PRO12 but they never looked remotely like achieving either goal against a gutsy Newport Gwent Dragons side.

The result is that they have to be satisfied with third spot as the league begins its European break, with Munster, who went back to top spot after beating Ulster earlier in the weekend, Warriors' opponents when the league restarts.

The subtext was looking ahead to next week's glamour match in Toulouse. With a dozen of Scotland's starting side from the recent internationals injured or rested, this had been an opportunity for the others to play their way on to the plane to France next weekend and, while there were a few who impressed, more will have missed their chance.

One who did well was Jon Welsh, the tighthead prop, who lasted until the final seconds and reminded everyone what a destructive scrummager he can be, while Henry Pyrgos, the scrum-half, came off the bench to remind selectors of the value of a crisp service and tactical understanding of the game.

"The Dragons played really well and put us under a lot of pressure," said Pyrgos. "We are not happy with a lot of our execution but it is tight at the top and it was great to get the win and push ourselves back up the table. With the conditions as they were back play was limited, it was tough and a lot of mistakes were made. We tried to tighten up a bit and it got congested in there.

"The forwards put in a big shift and at the end we shaded it. We scrummed very well and got a few penalties there; a nice driving line out for another penalty, and in the end that was crucial. We want to play at a high tempo and stress their defence but you could see after 20 to 30 minutes that we were not going to be able to do that so we adapted a bit."

Overall there were few complaints about the forwards and, when the man of the match goes to the tighthead prop, as it did in this game with Welsh getting the award, you know it was not a match where the backs did much of note. The scrum was in complete control, the line out mainly secure and the breakdown mostly went Glasgow's way. The only issue was that against rush defence willing to chop their legs away, the big ball carriers did not make the yardage they might have hoped for.

The big issues were almost all in a misfiring back division, where far too many passes went down for them to maintain a consistent challenge and Duncan Weir's tactical kicks found rival players instead of space.

It all meant that, despite their forward power, Glasgow could never get the control they needed and were trailing at the break as Geraint Rhys Jones, the Dragons' full-back put over three penalties before the break with Glasgow replying with two from Weir over 40 minutes of utterly forgettable rugby.

The second half opened with the kind of flourish Glasgow were hoping for. Richie Rees, the visiting scrum-half, had been sin binned just before half-time and Niko Matawalu, his opposite number, took full advantage to hack the ball clear when it went loose from a scrum. Although he lost the race to touch it down, he did force a scum five metres out.

The pack then took over, with the set piece driving inexorably to the line before one side went up in the air, the other went down and the middle bit twisted sideways. It was one of the easiest and least controversial penalty tries referee Dudley Phillips can ever have awarded.

The danger was not over, though. The Dragons clawed their way back into the game when Glasgow were penalised for offside, and even when Weir completed his 14-point haul with two more penalties, the visitors refused to give up.

The Welsh visitors cut the deficit to four points with Jones's fifth penalty and finished the game with a two-minute phase of solid attack before the home side won a penalty and gratefully got the ball off the park.

"You are always looking to play as perfect a game as possible but you have to adjust to the conditions," said Gregor Townsend, the Glasgow head coach. "The first half we were not doing that well but the second half we were doing that better. Next week, if we give that turnover ball to the likes of [Maxime] Medard, [Vincent] Clerc and whoever else Toulouse have, they are very dangerous."