The Dragons breathe fire into LV= Cup campaign
The Newport Gwent Dragons got the better of English side Gloucester as they won their LV= Cup match by 18-12 on Thursday 4 November.
Robin Sowden-Taylor and Adam Hughes scored the tries for the home side, while Lesley Vainikolo and a penalty try contributed to 10 of Gloucester’s 12 points.
The Dragons started the match with a higher tempo and energy and as a result the Welsh side scored the first points of the match.
Welsh international Aled Brew was heavily involved as he tackled Olly Morgan who was penalised for not releasing the ball.
Out-half Matthew Jones kicked the resulting penalty to put the Dragons into a 3-0 lead.
Jones added a second penalty shortly after.
This seemed to bring Gloucester to life and their strong pack began to dominate.
However, it was the Dragons who struck again with a wonderful counter attack, when Gloucester were turned over in deep in the Dragons territory.
Full-back Pat Leach managed to charge 70 metres in the break-away, before he fed wing Hughes who crossed the line to score the opening try of the match. Jones added a simple conversion to extend the Dragons
lead to 13-0.
Gloucester’s scrum and front-row got their team back into the match before half-time as the Dragons conceded a scrum near their own try line.
The Welsh side’s front-row had no answer to Gloucester’s and after deliberately collapsing the scrum on three occasions the referee was forced to award a penalty try, which Freddy Burns converted.
In the second half Gloucester dominated possession and managed their second try of the game, as Vainikolo scored a try on the right wing to narrow the gap to one point.
However, despite the Gloucester pressure it was the Dragons who finished with a flourish.
Sowden-Taylor managed to get a forward orientated try that resulted in the back-row scoring a push over to give the Welsh side a six point lead.
Jones failed to add the conversion, but the Dragons managed to hold on and win 18-12.
Gloucester coach Bryan Redpath failed to hide his disappointment in an interview with BBC Gloucester after the game.
"Our basic execution wasn't good enough. Every time we tried to create something we were either too flat or we made a handling error and knocked on, which created a very frustrating edge to the game. Freddie
Burns kicked us into the right areas, but we didn't capitalise in the right areas of the pitch,” said Redpath.
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