Connacht v Dragons Match Report
The Men of Gwent managed to take home a losing bonus point from their match at the Sportsground, Galway and will go into next weekend’s game in 10th place on the Guinness PRO12 leader board.
In the first ten minutes Connacht had the chance to add the first set of points to the board, but Leader missed the penalty kick. The hosts went on to score the first try of the night as their number 8 McKeon crossed the try line through the help of Adeolokun; the try wasn’t converted. However when the Dragons gave another penalty away, Leader stepped up to take the long range kick and was successful.
It was now Tovey’s turn to step up to take a kick at goal but Tovey missed touch with the penalty, but the visitors came back after half an hour as they levelled with the Irish side. It was flanker Nic Cudd finished off a fantastic team effort before Tovey kicked over a penalty that saw Connacht go down to 14 men, as McSharry was yellow carded for killing the ball.
Just before the halftime whistle was blown it looked like the Men of Gwent were going to take the lead as Andrew Coombs crossed the try line, but it was disallowed because of a knock on close to the try line.
Half Time: Connacht 8 – Newport Gwent Dragons 8
Director of Rugby, Lyn Jones made no changes to the team who took to the pitch in the second half and they looked to have taken in what had been said at half time. But this wasn’t to last long as skipper Lee Byrne was yellow carded. He was sin-binned for taking out Carty in the air and was sent to cool off for 10 minutes.
Connacht made the most of the Dragons deficit as Leader banged over a penalty kick. It then got worse for the visitors as Tyler Morgan was sent off joining Byrne in the sin-bin. The Irish side took to advantage and they made it across the try line and converted the try.
The Dragons only had a few minutes left to chance their fate and Tit was looking up when Tovey kicked over a penalty. Connacht gave away another penalty and the Dragons decided to kick to the corner only for the hosts to turn over the ball and kick it out.
Full Time: Connacht 16 – Newport Gwent Dragons 11
Connacht Team: Shane Layden, Niyi Adeolokun, Darragh Leader, Dave McSharry, Danie Poolman, Jack Carty, Ian Porter; Denis Buckley, Dave Heffernan, Nathan White, Mick Kearney, Quinn Roux, John Muldoon ©, Jake Heenan, Eoin McKeon.
Replacements: Sean Henry, Finlay Bealham, Rodney Ah You, George Naoupu, Willie Faloon, Kieran Marmion, Miah Nikora, Conor Finn.
Newport Gwent Dragons Team: Lee Byrne (c), Tom Prydie, Tyler Morgan, Jack Dixon, Aled Brew, Jason Tovey, Jonathan Evans; Boris Stankovich, Elliot Dee, Lloyd Fairbrother, Andrew Coombs, Rynard Landman, Lewis Evans, Nic Cudd, Andy Powell.
Replacements T. Rhys Thomas, Owen Evans, Dan Way, Ian Gough, Taulupe Faletau, Dorian Jones, Geraint Rhys Jones, Barney Nightingale.
Man of the Match: Denis Buckley (Connacht)
Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy)
Attendance: 4213
