Dragons suffer derby capital punishment

Dragons suffered a first half Boxing Day nightmare as they crashed to a painful 55-21 defeat to rivals Cardiff Rugby in the BKT United Rugby Championship.

The Men of Gwent went into the game eager to avenge a painful run of seventeen games without victory over Cardiff.

Instead Dai Flanagan’s men were blitzed in a first half horror at Cardiff Arms Park as the home side cut loose.

Cardiff capitalised on every mistake and wrapped up the try bonus with scores from Rhys Carre (2), Ben Thomas and Tomos Williams.

Harri Keddie hit back for Dragons early on, but it was painful viewing for the travelling support as a James Botham double a second from home scrum half Williams completed an abject opening 40 minutes.

Keddie grabbed his second of the game, but not before Cardiff hit the half century through Kieron Assiratti.

A penalty try sparked try bonus hopes for Dragons, but it was the home side who struck late to complete a miserable afternoon in the capital.

A poor start saw Dragons giveaway a needless penalty for taking the man in the air and the home side duly kept the ball, went through the phases and finally scored through Carre.

The visitors looked to respond with Basham ripping the ball in midfield and Rhodri Williams kicking in behind, but Dragons were penalised at the breakdown.

Flanagan’s men did reply on eight minutes when Aneurin Owen broke the defensive line and showed his awareness to feed Keddie on his shoulder to race over for the leveller.

The game was flowing from end to end with Cardiff next to score after winning the ball in the air and then keeping it alive to again feed Carre from close range to bulldoze over.

The Men of Gwent were getting hurt by the penalty count and poor individual mistakes as another kick to the corner ahead allowed Cardiff to execute a lineout move and send Thomas over.

A penalty for crossing allowed a shellshocked Dragons to kick to the corner. But the ball was spilled forward, and Cardiff kicked ahead to huge cheers.

It went from bad to worse as the home side turned over ball with a counter ruck, kept the ball alive with neat handling and a dummy from Teddy Williams sending Tomos Williams over.

Cardiff even scored a fifth as they burrowed up close and went over through Botham, even after the TMO had looked at a possible head connection in the build-up.

Botham added a home sixth on the half hour, with a well worked lineout and driving maul, before the wreckage of a first half was complete with Tomos Williams grabbed his second for a 45-7 lead at the interval.

Dragons made three half-time changes with Will Reed, Sean Lonsdale and Dan Lydiate all introduced to try and spark a revival.

But the tries kept flowing as De Beer threatened to breakaway, after an initial burst from Rey Lee-Lo, before home prop Assiratti side-stepped his way past traffic and to the line.

Dragons kept ringing the changes – Leon Brown, James Benjamin and Dane Blacker all introduced – and they finally struck a blow with Keddie grabbing his second of the game.

The visitors were trying to build up a head of steam and two quickfire penalties saw them kick to the corner and crash over for a penalty try, with Rhys Litterick yellow carded.

Dragons looked to apply more pressure to snatch a try bonus but the ball was spilled after Reed and Rosser showed nice footwork to make yards.

And the final word went to Cam Winnett as Mason Grady gave a show and go and fed the home full back to apply the finish.

Timeline:

03m Carre t De Beer c 7-0

08m Keddie t Evans c 7-7

11m Carre t De Beer c 14-7

15m Thomas t De Beer c 21-7

18m To. Williams t 26-7

23m Botham t De Beer c 33-7

31m Botham t 38-7

36m To. Williams t De Beer c 45-7

49m Assiratti t 50-7

52m Keddie t Evans c 50-14

59m Penalty t 50-21

77m Winnett t 55-21

Cardiff: Cam Winnett; Josh Adams, Rey Lee-Lo, Ben Thomas, Mason Grady; Tinus de Beer, Tomos Williams; Rhys Carre, Liam Belcher, Keiron Assiratti, Rory Thornton, Teddy Williams, Alex Mann, James Botham, Mackenzie Martin

Replacements: Evan Lloyd, Corey Domachowski, Rhys Litterick, Seb Davies, Lucas de la Rua, Ellis Bevan, Willis Halaholo, Gabriel Hamer-Webb.

Dragons RFC: Jordan Williams (Reed 40), Rio Dyer, Steff Hughes (Rosser 32), Aneurin Owen, Ashton Hewitt, Cai Evans, Rhodri Williams (Blacker 51); Rhodri Jones (Seiuli 66), Bradley Roberts (Benjamin 51), Lloyd Fairbrother (Brown 51), Joe Davies (Lonsdale 40), George Nott, Harri Keddie, Taine Basham (Lydiate 40), Aaron Wainwright

Replacements: James Benjamin, Aki Seiuli, Leon Brown, Sean Lonsdale, Dan Lydiate, Dane Blacker, Will Reed, Jared Rosser

Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU, 96th game)

Attendance: 12,000