COACH Paul Turner praised the bravery of his players as they opened the Heineken Cup campaign with a victory, though admitting to being disappointed at their failure to clinch a bonus point.

“There was a lot of bravery out there because a couple of players – locks Adam Jones and Luke Charteris – didn’t train all week but played most of the game,” he said.

“The next five games will be against five of the best teams in Europe (Bath, Gloucester, Wasps, Leinster and Toulouse), but we proved we can go away and win, anything is possible with these guys.

“We had an 18-year-old (Aaron Coundley, who is 19 next Saturday) on the bench and as a pack we were superb, though a couple of players in the squad are treading eggshells.

“I’m pleased for the players, there was a certain edge about us. We came a cropper in a monsoon when we played them in the first game in the league so we had a bit of a score to settle.

“There were some tremendous performances from the pack as a whole, Rory Sidey and Marc Stcherbina in the middle and James Arlidge kept knocking the points over.

“It was disappointing we didn’t get the bonus point, 5-0 would have been good, but so is 4-1 so it was another building block.

“It was a week when I felt we coached pretty well and we started like a house on fire, though we went 10-0 down and had to build an innings again. But we didn’t quite finish it off, we’ve got to be patient and do the right things.

“Bath will be another challenge when we will have to be more accurate in the contact area, while we’ve also got to work on our defence.”

In contrast to Turner, Glasgow coach Sean Lineen was furious with his players. “It was an appalling performance and everyone has got to take a look at himself. It was a real opportunity to win here, but we didn’t take it,” he stormed after the Dragons avenged their previous two home defeats in the league at the hands of the Scots.

“To be 10-0 up and then back off just wasn’t good enough, the forwards were bested again and we just weren’t at the races and that’s not acceptable,” he said.