There could be no greater compliment to Dave Rennie’s Glasgow Warriors than the emotions expressed by the beaten coach at Scotstoun last night after watching his side concede six tries to the unbeaten Pro14 Conference A leaders.

It had been a tough night for Danny Wilson who had seen his side reduced to 14 men after prop Taufaao Filise was red carded for a shoulder to the head, but along with his despondency at the outcome he drew encouragement from they had performed.

“I was proud of the effort from our boys against wave on wave of attack from the best side in the league at the moment in my opinion. It’s just disappointing it’s ended up the score it has,” he said.

Wilson acknowledged that by the letter of the law referee Nigel Owens had little choice but to dismiss the 40-year-old Tongan off, but he felt it had changed the game significantly since, like Australia had been against Scotland when they similarly had a man sent off at Murrayfield a week earlier, they had been leading at the time, but went on to lose heavily.

“It was a huge decision and a huge moment in the game. We were in the lead at the time and I’m extremely proud that we got back into the lead after we were down to 14 men and the two late tries flattered the scoreline a little bit,” Wilson reckoned.

In overall terms the momentum was with the home side by that stage, however, having recovered from conceding a 10 point early lead to their opponents, a Jarrod Evans penalty in the first minute, followed by a Josh Turnbull try which the stand off converted and in performance terms Dave Rennie seemed the less happy of the coaches after watching his men win handsomely in the end and set a new club record of 10 successive wins in this competition.

“It was a slow start, but I thought we’d fought our way back in. Obviously, the red card had a little bit of an influence and it was tough on them, but I also felt we made thought it was going to be a little bit easier and lacked that real edge that’s maybe been on display in our last few outings,” he observed.

Glasgow then had a chance to get on the scoreboard 11 minutes into the game when they were awarded a penalty midway inside their opponents’ half, but made a declaration of intent by kicking to touch.

It failed to pay off first time around, but when they were given a second penalty chance to camp themselves close to the Cardiff line they stretched the defence moving left to right, before Horne spotted Sam Johnson wide on the left touchline and judged his left-footed cross kick perfectly. The centre still had work to do on gathering it 10 metres from the line, but he fended off Tomos Williams, before rounding Gareth Anscombe and touching down.

Evans knocked over a second penalty to edge his side six points clear soon after. However the match swung Glasgow’s way once and for all when, after lengthy consultation with the television official, Owens surprised most in the ground by deciding the high tackle that had ended new Scotland cap George Turner’s involvement, had been serious enough to merit a red card for Taufaao Filise.

Glasgow wasted little time in capitalising, Matt Smith giving them impetus with a powerful run down the left, breaking two tackles in getting within 10 metres. When he was stopped the ball was recycled quickly and shifted to the opposite flank where Callum Gibbins threw an inside pass which was deflected into Alex Dunbar’s path and the Scotland centre twisted his way out of a tackle to score a try that Horne converted to put his side ahead for the first time.

Cardiff reclaimed the lead with a third Evans penalty early in the second half, but Olly Robinson was then sin-binned after they had committed another string of offences at close range. Moments later Glasgow had their third try, a series of pick and drives sucking in the depleted defence before the ball was shifted wide right where Dunbar put Ruaridh Jackson in.

The fourth try that brought the bonus point seemed inevitable and was duly registered by replacement prop Samu Vunisa, plunging over from a close range ruck and they added a fifth late on when a neat Horne grubber kick allowed Leo Sarto to touch down on the left.

Glasgow: R Jackson; L Masaga (N Matawalu 53) , S Johnson (A Hastings 68), A Dunbar, L Sarto; P Horne, H Pyrgos (G Horne 53); A Allan (J Bhatti 61)((, G Turner (J Malcolm 29), S Halanukonnuka (D Rae 61), K McDonald, S Cummings (H Burr 76), M Smith (S Vinisa 33), C Gibbins capt, R Wilson

Cardiff: G Anscombe capt; O Lane, G Smith, W Halaholo (R Lee-Lo 59), B Scully; J Evans (T James 57), T Williams (D Blacker 75); B Thyer (C Domachowski 59), K Myhill (E Lewis 68), T Filise, G Earle (J Down 68), M Cook (D Welch 72), J Turnbull, O Robinson, N Williams (A Peikrishvili 29)

Referee: N Owens