There was a nice moment for Johnny Matthews who marked his 100th appearance with a try off the bench. Kyle Steyn also scored while the match ended with a penalty try after Jamie Dobie was tackled off the ball by Rio Dyer who was shown the game’s only yellow card in the dying seconds.

That Warriors also didn’t allow Dragons to score – the closest they came was a second half Dave Richards “try” that was ruled out for a forward pass – was also a pleasing aspect and means the players will enjoy pizza for lunch one day this week as a reward. And while Smith savoured all of that, there was still a clear sense of frustration that it had taken a half-time team talk to rouse his players from their early lethargy.

“We just didn’t get going for whatever reasons but I think the second half was better and we saw a good reaction after the halftime chat,” said the head coach. “[The message] was about upping the intensity a little bit, making sure that we shortened the stop-start period. Once the whistle goes, it took a very long time for play to start again. I felt we should get more game time, more ball in play by upping the tempo a little bit Obviously, I felt there was not enough urgency and intention from us. We had to give more and I think that is what we’ve seen in the end. We came out of the changing room much better.”

Brown has enjoyed a stellar year and  continues to improve game by game. Fresh from his cameo role in the British and Irish Lions tour, he was excellent here in the No. 6 shirt, again demonstrating his versatility. He played a key role in Horne’s first try, bulldozing his way down the left wing before executing an outrageous back-door offload that his scrum-half gratefully received to score. Then came Brown’s own moment in the spotlight as he took a pass from Euan Ferrie and powered his over Huw Anderson guarding the line to get the ball down.

“I definitely think he gets better the more he plays,” confirmed Smith. “He’s been unfortunate once or twice with injury and that interrupted the progression. I think the time on the pitch in a game environment helps a lot with his progression. Some players are just like that.

“Others need more time away but I think he’s been doing well when he plays. I’m very pleased and proud of him. He’s taken the role as a lock on and he made a success of it. He can easily revert back to six so he’s becoming a hybrid. He’s got some special ingredients there in his play to make him valuable to the team.”

There will be pizza on the menu this week at Scotstoun, something former defence coach Pete Murchie introduced as an incentive if the players could “nil” the opposition.

“Pete has left that legacy behind I think,” added Smith. “I don’t know if it was a tradition in the earlier years. But since I got here, whenever this has happened, one of the lunches becomes a pizza.  It’s just something to say thank you to the boys for going the extra mile.”

And who pays for it? “It won’t be me,” smiled the South African.

Teams –

Glasgow Warriors: J McKay, K Steyn, O Smith, S Tuipulotu, J Dobie, A Hastings (D Lancaster 56), G Horne (B Afshar 63); R Sutherland (P Schickerling 49), G Hiddleston (J Matthews 49), F Richardson (M Walker 33-43, 49), A Craig (M Williamson 49), S Cummings (A Samuel 78), G Brown, M Duncan (A Fraser 56), E Ferrie

Dragons: H Anderson, F Inisi, A Owen, H Ackerman (R Dyer 64), D Richards, J Lloyd (T de Beer 50), C Hope (N Armstrong 50); R Martinez (D Kelleher-Griffiths 50), O Burrows (J Benjamin 50), D Lewis (C Coleman 50), L Douglas (M Screech 31), S Davies, R Woodman, S Lewis-Hughes, M Martin (H Beddal 49)

Referee: Peter Martin (IRFU)

Scorers –

Glasgow: Tries: Steyn, Horne 2, Brown, Hiddleston, Matthews, Penalty; Cons: Hastings 4, Horne, Lancaster

Scoring sequence (Glasgow first): 5-0, 7-0, 12-0, 14-0, (h-t), 19-0, 21-0, 26-0, 28-0, 33-0, 35-0, 40-0, 42-0, 49-0

Yellow card:

 Rio Dyer (Scarlets) 80 mins