Ahead of Friday’s Guinness PRO14 game against Connacht at Rodney Parade, we turn back the clock for a #ThrowbackThursday and look back at our victory over the Irish province in 2012….
Dragons 14-3 Connacht - November 23rd, 2012
Pat Leach scored the crucial try as Dragons battled to a much-needed victory over Connacht at Rodney Parade.
Dan Parks opened the scoring for the visitors but from there it was one way traffic as the Dragons controlled affairs.
Tom Prydie kept the scoreboard ticking either side of Pat Leach’s crucial try in the closing stages of the first half.
Dragons and Darren Edwards went into the clash amid increasing pressure following their worst losing sequence since their inception.
Edwards’ men had crashed to seven consecutive defeats and were in desperate need of a victory if they were to maintain any hope of leap-frogging Cardiff Blues to clinch a Heineken Cup spot.
They were impressive in their defeat to Northampton the Sunday prior and, despite having a five-day turnaround, they produced another committed performance.
Former Cardiff Blues pivot Parks booted Connacht into an early lead at the Liberty Stadium but that was the only action in an error-strewn opening quarter.
Both sides failed to deal with the difficult conditions in rain-soaked Newport and were undone by unforced mistakes.
But Will Harries sparked the encounter into some sort of life with a thunderous hit on Robbie Henshaw. It put the Irish province on the back foot and Jason Harris-Wright was sent to the sin-bin as they scrambled to maintain possession.
Prydie stepped up and duly slotted the simple penalty but minutes later he failed to nudge Dragons into the lead after Connacht were reduced to 13-men – Andrew Browne shown yellow for stamping.
The hosts laid siege to the Connacht twenty-two and the pressure eventually told as Leach slid over in the left-hand corner to capitalise on the numerical advantage.
Prydie was off-target with the touchline conversion but the try propelled Dragons into an 8-3 half-time lead.
The hosts made a quick start to the second half and put Connacht under more pressure, with Prydie firing over a pair of penalties to ease to a 14-3 advantage.
The Irish province continued to test Dragons but the under-fire Gwent region came up with the right answers as they maintained control.
Dragons: T Prydie, W Harries, P Leach, A Smith (J Dixon 40), T Chavhanga, D Evans, W Evans (J Evans 65), P Price (O Evans 80), H Gustafson (S Jones 65), D Way (N Buck 55), A Jones, R Sidoli (I Nimmo 76), L Evans (capt), N Cudd, T Brown.
Connacht: R Henshaw; T O’Halloran, D Poolman, D McSharry, G Duffy (capt); D Parks, K Marmion (D Moore 76); D Buckley (Ah You 65), J Harris-Wright, N White (R Loiughney 66); M Swift, M Kearney; A Browne, W Faloon, E McKeon.
The hosts laid siege to the Connacht twenty-two and the pressure eventually told as Leach slid over in the left-hand corner...
