The Dragons secured a famous win over Heineken Cup semi finalists Munster at Rodney Parade last Friday. Against a strong Munster side, the battling Dragons pulled off a tremendous victory; we bring you the post match reaction from Head Coach Paul Turner and fullback Aled Thomas
Paul Turner – “Munster are a very resilient side and we were cautious that they could have pinched it at the end. However, it was our night and I take my hat off to the boys they played really well. Certain people have questioned our ambition, however, it is they way of the rugby world that players move on and I am satisfied with what is happening at the Region. It is a significant result (beating Munster) but we have a tough Easter period, we have to go to Galway next weekend, take on the Blues at Rodney Parade on Wednesday before going to the Scarlets, we need to perform to go up the League table. We need to push in these final games and I am pleased we got off the mark against a quality side. At Galway we have to perform, it is a difficult place to go to but tonight (Friday) we have beaten what could be the European champions and we have beaten a side we would like to model ourselves on. They are a talented side with talented players and we started off badly where we gifted them 10 points and we cannot afford to do that. I thought Aled Thomas was outstanding, Ceri Sweeney’s distribution was fantastic, we were patient on the ball and in the end we possibly could have won at a canter.
“Skipper Jason Forster was outstanding and had one of his best games for the Region. To a man everyone was outstanding. They played for each other. However, we need to be more consistent and sustain results, we cannot afford to flop against Connacht and need to pick up a win at Galway before a big one against the Blues.”
Development player Aled Thomas faced Munster for the fourth time this season in only his ninth start for the Region. He gave arguably his best performance in a Dragons shirt with coach Paul Turner describing him as “outstanding.” Speaking after the match he said, “On a personal note I was pleased with my game and hopefully I will have shown enough to Paul for him to keep picking me. The crowd were amazing tonight and it was fantastic to overcome the challenge of Munster, we possibly could have secured a bonus point but maybe that would have been a bit greedy! We took our chances and the forwards were immense, our defence was also brilliant. All round everyone played their part but it is important now that we build on this result and if we keep performing to that level then we should secure out place in the Heineken Cup. We have put in some decent performances at home and it will be a tough challenge against Connacht and is a must win game. However, we will go with confidence that we can do a job and will look to come back with four points. The display tonight (Friday) shows how much within the squad we want to get into Europe. We have had fantastic support and we want to repay our fans. The last twenty minutes we sustained territory and possibly with more belief we could have scored more points. However, our focus still remains to qualify for Europe next year and we need to build on tonight’s performance, we have beaten Leinster and Munster the two Heineken Cup semi finalists and it was a tremendous result tonight. Teams have possibly underrated us this season, and perhaps from now on they won’t!”
