WORDS of slightly patronising praise for Newport Gwent Dragons’ attacking intent rang in their ears as they headed home from Glasgow yet it’s undeniable that the region are being hindered by vulnerability in the face of ‘scoreboard pressure’.

It is a sporting term that originates in cricket, where teams aim to build an imposing lead in the hope that the anxiety of the deficit will lead to wickets falling.

Its transfer to rugby was evident at Scotstoun Stadium last Friday as the Warriors put the Dragons to the sword in a thumping 37-6, five-try victory.

Glasgow are going strong in the Pro12 and sit third courtesy of six successive league wins while the Rodney Parade region are languishing one off the bottom with just winless Zebre beneath them.

International call-ups and injuries deprived Glasgow of 17 players for last week’s clash but they still eased to success.

It was a game where the gulf in quality and belief of the sides was laid bare – the Scottish outfit played with confidence and made the most of their chances while the visitors started well only for mistakes to plague their game once they fell behind.

The opening exchanges saw the Dragons getting through the phases and stretching the Glasgow defence, with captain and flanker Lewis Evans prominent as a first receiver and changing the point of attack.

But the belief seeped out of the Rodney Parade region when they shipped a pair of soft first half tries and they never looked likely to respond.

Confidence is clearly an issue after a woeful first two months of the season and Glasgow played on that weakness.

“Make no mistake about it – we knew that the Dragons would be tough because they are a proud bunch,” said their head coach Gregor Townsend, the former Scotland and Lions fly-half.

“We watched a lot of their games and they beat Edinburgh, scored some great tries against Zebre and it was close against (Pro12 leaders) Ulster for 40 minutes.

“We didn’t expect them to move the ball quite so much in the first half and they put us under a lot of pressure.

“They came here and played a lot of rugby but maybe in the end it tired them out and to be fair they were hit pretty hard by injury (with Evans, lock Rob Sidoli and prop Phil Price all forced off).

“But maybe because of how things are going for them at the moment they are finding it tough when teams are more than a score ahead.

“We’ve all been there, suddenly you force things and it leads to more tries and the score doesn’t reflect the game, I know that was the case for them against Ulster.

“The only way is to stick it out and hopefully it will change when the wins come.”

All of which gives added importance to the LV= Cup, a tournament usually used for development purposes.

The Dragons head to Bath on Saturday afternoon to face a side that sit eighth in the Aviva Premiership after their weekend defeat to London Welsh.

The hosts at the Rec have the added motivation of LV= Cup success being a route to the Heineken Cup.