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Woeful Pro12 night for Glasgow and Edinburgh

Warriors Mark Bennett, centre, gets the better of Dragons Daniel Evans.
Warriors Mark Bennett, centre, gets the better of Dragons Daniel Evans.

Gregor Townsend apologised to the fans as woeful Warriors surrendered 8-23 to the unfancied Dragons in a Scotstoun shocker.

Their second home defeat on the trot put the seal on a miserable November for Townsend’s troops.

Four squad players are due to appear in court on serious assault charges next month, and it certainly looked as if Friday night’s line-up had other things on their minds.

The coach declared: “It was a bad, bad performance. We let down a lot of people, not least the big crowd who came out to back us on a freezing night.”

Cult star Niko Matawalu had been the hero and villain of the first half.

The Glasgow fans couldn’t have dreamed of a better start as Stuart Hogg made a spectacular return in the wake of his injury problems.

His powerful surge created the time and space for Matawalu to finish in style with only a minute on the clock.

Henry Pyrgos was off-target with the conversion attempt, and his frustrations mounted when he also missed two penalties.

There were no such problems at the other end for Dragons marksman Jason Tovey.

Not only did he slot two kicks to give his side the lead, he stunned them in the build up to the interval with an opportunist score.

Matawalu couldn’t disguise his disgust as he spilled the ball on his own line, handing Tovey the easiest of opportunities to pounce for the crucial touch.

Tovey’s pinpoint conversion rubbed salt in the Warriors’ wounds.

Pyrgos found his form with the boot four minutes after the restart to repair some of the damage, but Tovey’s influence shone through again when he created the second Dragons’ try.

Tovey converted from the widest possible angle. Glasgow sensed a chance to fight back as former Edinburgh mauler Netani Talei was yellow carded for a late challenge.

They mounted a series of raids, but a combination of dubious refereeing verdicts, sloppy kicking and careless handling helped the Welshmen keep their line intact.

And Tovey had the last word with a slick drop-goal.

* Edinburgh’s Pro12 revival hit the buffers in Belfast as they were ripped apart by Ulster, who ran out 41-17 winners.

It was a truly woeful performance by Alan Solomons’ outfit.

Edinburgh produced some of their best and worst rugby of the season during the frantic opening exchanges.

They enjoyed the bulk of possession and territory and put together a series of thrilling attacks, but on at least three occasions the good work was spoiled by sloppy and basic mistakes.

They got their act together in the 15th minute, however, to create an excellent try.

Sammy Hidalgo-Clyne stole the ball at a wheeled scrum and released flanker Cornell du Preez who shrugged off three challenges to reach the line.

Ulster were stung into action and James McKinney repaired some of the damage with a confidently struck penalty.

The hosts raised the tempo and it was no surprise when full-back Craig Gilroy spun out of a tackle and crashed over.

McKinney made the tricky conversion look easy.

Worse was to come for the visitors five minutes later when scrum-half Paul Marshall followed up his own volley to score in the wake of great running by Darren Cave.

McKinney added the extras, then took the tally to 20 with the last kick of the half.

Ulster kept up the momentum after the restart and only a sequence of fearless tackles kept them out.

Edinburgh’s plight deepened as Zak Van der Westhuizen was yellow-carded for collapsing a maul, and within seconds skipper Robbie Diack pounced for the third Ulster try converted by McKinney.

Two minutes later Gilroy completed his double with an interception securing the bonus point in the process.

McKinney jumped back into the spotlight to convert his own try.

But Edinburgh refused to buckle completely and late efforts Dougie Fife and Grayson Hart put a kinder complexion on the scoreline.