THE record books will show another Glasgow Warriors win; another bonus point and a season back on the rails after all the nasty selection problems precipitated by the World Cup. But the reality could not have been more different.

Glasgow did get the reward for being more ruthless but they were outplayed for long periods, gave away 19 penalties and could have lost it at the death when a penalty try brought Cardiff to within a score and Stuart Hogg was sent to the sin-bin when an attempted interception went wrong.

With time running out, the Welsh launched a four-minute assault on their line in hunt of the winning score but, as had been the case throughout the game could not find the killer touch. Instead they had to settle for the losing bonus point mainly earned from six penalties from Rhys Patchell, the outside half who has hinted he is leaving the club at the end of the season.

"It was an important win, everyone is especially away from home," said Gregor Townsend, the Glasgow head coach. "Cardiff are a very good side and played very well but we are disappointed by a lot of aspects of our game. We made poor decisions and gave away penalties and know we had to be better over the next few weeks.

"If you give away that many penalties and two yellow cards, you will struggle. We put ourselves under pressure, which let the referee penalise us and then, when you give away that many penalties there are going to be yellow cards. The players were on the field for a long time after the game, they know there is a fair amount of work to do and we can be much better than that."

Part of the frustration was that with eight of the Scotland World Cup squad in the Glasgow starting XV and another two on the bench – plus those such as Leone Nakarawa and Sila Puafisi also back from their World Cup exertions with other countries – expectations had risen significantly.

The downside of so many international call-ups was that after six months away Glasgow were likely to be rusty. There were a lot of new systems, particularly in the pack, and many of those players had only met Dan McFarland, the new forwards coach, for the first time a few days ago. And so it proved.

There were mistakes aplenty and Glasgow struggled to maintain the pressure, allowing Rhys Platchell to kick four penalties down the wing in the first half to send his into the break with a narrow lead despite his side having lost the try count two-one.

The Glasgow tries were both well worked affairs, both the rewards for the only two serious visits to the opposition 22 with Leone Nakarawa reaching out from the back of a ruck to score the first and then supplying the pass to Taquele Naiyaravoro, the wing, for the second after Tommy Seymour had created the position with a scything break through the middle.

In between, though, it had been mostly Cardiff, playing down the wing, and Dan Fish, the full back, twice switched the direction of play and found the offload to create space on the left for Gavin Evans, the centre, to cross for the home side's try to add to Patchell's four first-half penalties.

Russell managed one conversion and a penalty but Glasgow were still two points behind at the break, though they didn't hang about correcting that with Hogg breaking from the kick off and Russell kicking the penalty when Cardiff killed the ruck in front of their posts.

They might have expected more when Mark Bennett broke clean through but got isolated from his support runners and had to kick and a later interception from Russell where he was caught five yards short. but it was really Cardiff who were calling the shots as Glasgow's discipline started to cause problems and Patchell punished them with two penalties to put his side back in front.

The Scots pack did control enough of the game and they looked comfortable as a four minute spell brought the vital two tries with Ryan Grant, the prop, and Jonny Gray in his first match as club captain, both barging their way over but there was still time for a late drama with Hogg failing to catch an attempted interception, to give away the penalty try and sin bin that gave the Welsh a glimpse of hope.

Cardiff Blues: Tries: Evans, Pen try. Pens: Patchell 6.

Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Nakarawa, Naiyaravoro, Grant , Gray. Cons: Russell 3. Pens: Russell 3.

Cardiff Blues: D Fish; A Cuthbert, R Lee-Lo (J Evans, 76), G Evans (M Isaacs, 46), T James; R Patchell , L Williams (T Knoyle, 77); G Jenkins (C), K Dacey (M Rees, 65), T Filise (C Mitchell, 54), L Reed (J Hoeata, 54), J Down, E Jenkins (M Vosawai, 74), S Warburton, J Turnbull.

Glasgow Warriors: S Hogg (sin bin: 78-end); T Naiyaravoro, M Bennett, P Horne, T Seymour (J Bulumakau, 46-52); F Russell, G Hart (M Blair, 56); G Reid (R Grant, 58), P MacArthur, S Puafisi (Z Fagerson, 52), L Nakarawa, J Gray (C), J Strauss (G Peterson, 70), C Fusaro (R Wilson, 52, sin bin: 58-68), A Ashe (R Harley, 64).

Referee: M Mitrea (Italy)

Attendance 5,704