NEWPORT Gwent Dragons stars Percy Montgomery and Michael Owen stole the show by scoring 33 points between them in the Welsh sides' 38-15 victory over Borders at Galashiels last night.

Dragons coach Mike Ruddock praised the pair of them, and Borders' coach, Australian Tony Gilbert, singled out Monty in particular for praise after the match.

"Michael Owen made a dream debut, starting with his first try straight away," said Ruddock.

"I'm pleased for him after the disappointment of missing out on the World Cup.

"A 20 point start was an unexpected bonus and there were a couple of nice finishes, especially when Hal Luscombe took a difficult pass and then got it to Monty for him to score."

Gilbert added: "Percy played well and he did the things you expect him to. "He also used the players around him better, that was the best part of his game.

"I didn't expect it from him, I thought he would run at us more in the game." Ruddock was not entirely happy with the performance, despite securing a bonus point for scoring four tries in the game and jumping into third place in the Celtic League table.

"I'm pleased we got the bonus point which was big for us, but we also showed rustiness and made a number of errors," he said.

"A lot of that was down to the way the Borders played, but, at 20-0 ahead after 20 minutes, we could have expected to score 40, 50 or even 60 points.

"But they rallied well and made it difficult for us.

"We will have to step it up against Stade Francais next week, but, given that we had to travel today and had no game for three weeks, with an early start - some from 5am, hopefully we will put it right next week."

That match against Stade Francais at Rodney Parade next Saturday re-starts the Dragons' Heineken Cup group campaign.

But despite certain reservations about last night's performance, Ruddock believes that the Dragons can mount a challenge for the Celtic League title this season.

"Now we have got to believe we can challenge for the league," he said. "Let's believe we can do it."

Ruddock has slight injury concerns about outside--half Lee Jarvis and number eight Ross Beattie who both left the field in the second-half with back and hamstring strains respectively.

Beattie was being watched by new Scotland coach Matt Williams, formerly in charge with Leinster - ironically Ruddock's old Irish province.