Glasgow's spirits are dampened by Dawson

Fashions may come and trends may go, but age-old stereotypes are still alive and well at the élite end of European rugby. For instance, Matthew Dawson spent much of yesterday afternoon's proceedings at Franklin's Gardens explaining the facts of life to the referee – in fluent Italian, judging by the number of penalties he managed to extract from the inexperienced Marco Salera. Equally significant was the sight of a beefy English club pack taking advantage of deteriorating conditions to squeeze the living daylights out of their hapless Scottish opponents. Some things never change.

At the interval, Andy Nicol's highly competitive Glasgow outfit were in the comfy chairs, having played with pace and width in opening up a 6-3 half-time lead. If anything, the deficit flattered Northampton. Pinned on the back foot by Gordon Bulloch, Jason White and Jon Petrie, all of whom backed themselves with ball in hand, the Midlanders were even more suspicious of Glenn Metcalfe's buccaneering attacks from full-back. The visitors, encouraged by a decent run in the inaugural Celtic League, looked perfectly at home at the higher level, and must have fancied their chances of repeating Edinburgh's feat of last season by winning in the East Midlands.

At which point, their forwards disappeared off the face of the earth. Bulloch, a Lion last summer, was swept aside by the rampaging young buck Steve Thompson, whose talents in the loose demand close investigation from Clive Woodward and the England hierarchy. Similarly, Petrie was subdued by Andrew Blowers and Grant Seely, who took a firm measure of control around the fringes. Behind a pack who were motoring, despite playing into the wind and rain, Dawson was in his element: a dart here, a box-kick there, a cut-out pass somewhere else. Blatant gamesmanship notwithstanding, he is some player.

The wet-weather pressure paid dividends within a minute of the restart, James Brooks taking advantage of a fortunate rebound off Tom Smith to slide in. Seely laid the foundations for a second try just shy of the hour, careering deep into opposition territory from a tapped penalty and giving Ben Cohen the opportunity to run flat across the remnants of a broken defence and send Mark Tucker over. Dawson then swapped penalties with Tommy Hayes before Luca Martin, on at right wing for the injured Craig Moir, ended the argument with a score in the right corner. Budge Pountney's close-range finish on 79 minutes merely underlined the superiority of the Northampton heavy mob.

"It is a matter of belief," said John Steele, the home coach. "I wasn't particularly happy with the first-half performance, which lacked urgency. But I would be far more worried if I was stood here wondering where the next try might be coming from." Northampton will do well to score many next week, for Leicester, the most parsimonious club side in Europe, are in town for a Premiership derby. But the Saints will certainly hope to strengthen their Heineken Cup credentials when Montferrand fly over later this month. The Frenchmen head the pool following their victory over Cardiff on Saturday, but are hardly the happiest of travellers.

As for the Scots, the second 40 minutes amounted to a particularly unpleasant wake-up call. No kilted collective has ever featured in a Heineken quarter-final, and it is difficult to see that changing this season, despite the high hopes invested in Glasgow. Victory yesterday would have made contenders of them. Sadly – and not for the first time – they flattered to deceive.

Northampton: Tries Brooks, Tucker, Martin, Pountney; Conversions Dawson 2; Penalties Dawson 2. Glasgow: Penalties Hayes 2; Drop goal Hayes.

Northampton: M Tucker; C Moir (L Martin, 66), P Jorgensen, J Leslie, B Cohen; A Hepher (J Brooks, 21), M Dawson (D Malone, 79); T Smith (K Todd, 75), S Thompson (S Brotherstone, 75), M Stewart, J Phillips, R Hunter (A Newman, 68), A Blowers (M Soden, 78), A Pountney (capt), G Seely.

Glasgow: G Metcalfe; J Steel, J McLaren, A Henderson, M Bartlett; T Hayes, A Nicol (capt, G Beveridge, 70); D Hilton (C Blades, 58), G Bulloch, L Harrison (G McIlwham, 58), N Ross, J White, R Reid (A Hall, 49), G Flockhart, J Petrie.

Referee: M Salera (Italy).