NEWPORT, and Ofisa Tonu'u in particular, blazed a trail back to the top of the Welsh/Scottish League table at Rodney Parade on Saturday night.

A rampaging Newport side blitzed by 55 points 5 a potentially dangerous Glasgow team with nine tries, to inflict on the Scots their heaviest defeat of the season.

And at the heart of it all was Tonu'u, who played as if he had a massive point to make after all the headlines about the racial abuse he suffered at Bonymaen. He scored a blistering hat-trick of tries, ran Glasgow ragged and was greeted like a conquering hero when he was replaced in the second half.

Tonu'u said afterwards his main motivation was his son who celebrated his birthday the day before the match, but whether it was that or the aftermath of Bonymaen the Samoan was absolutely magnificent.

He ripped the heart out of the Scots with his three-try demolition job in just 25 minutes. The first came when he tore across from a tap penalty, the second arrived via a huge scrum drive and the third from another scrum.

Apart from all that his booming service and sheer power made him comfortably the man-of-the-match.

But it was really a 15-man job as Newport took complete revenge for last season's shock defeat at the hands of Glasgow.

The Scots were blasted in the scrums where coach Ian McIntosh's decision to start with Chris Anthony and then bring Adrian Garvey on worked like a dream. And the back row played brilliantly off such a platform, benefiting from the specialist assistance they received from outside last week.

All three got on the scoresheet as they ran like demons. The returning Andrew Powell got Newport moving after just two minutes with a typical buccaneering run, Peter Buxton bullocked across after a burst by Jason Forster and Forster himself finished off some lovely handling with his tenth try in his last eight appearances.

The openside was also heavily involved in a try by Rod Snow, so he made his point to the watching Wales management.

Garvey also careered across for a try and in a final flourish Matt Mostyn stepped into the outside half slot in a set move and the ball was moved wide for Matthew Watkins to finish it all off.

There wasn't much wrong with this Newport performance, though Shane Howarth experienced difficulty in the wind with his place kicking.

The raft of replacements also detracted from the final stages just like in the Wales/Italy game the week before.

And Glasgow's commitment had to be questioned. Ebbw Vale's won't when the Gwent rivals do battle at Eugene Cross Park on Friday night.

Newport: M Pini (J Strange 60 mins), M Mostyn, M Watkins, A Marinos, B Breeze (N Brew 65), S Howarth, O Tonu'u (D Burn 59), R Snow, J Richards (P Young 71), C Anthony (A Garvey 40), S Raiwalui (captain), I Gough, P Buxton (J Powell 71), A Powell (A Popham 53), J Forster.

Scorers -- tries: O Tonu'u (3), A Powell, R Snow, P Buxton, J Forster, A Garvey, M Watkins; conversions: S Howarth (5).

Glasgow: G Metcalfe, J McLaren, A Bulloch, A Henderson (J Stuart 60), R Kerr, T Hayes (G Kiddie 40), G Beveridge, D Hilton, D Hall (G Scott 71), G Mcllwham (L Harrison 48), S Griffiths (N Ross 43), A Hall (G Perrett 71), J White (captain), J Petrie, D McFadyean. Scorer -- try: J Stuart.