Dragons RFC celebrated their third successive away win on Friday night as a last-second David Richards try helped the Men of Gwent to a 19-18 victory in Parma.
Despite leading 7-3 at the break, Dragons missed chances to extend their lead before half-time and Zebre came out all guns blazing, scoring a try and a penalty to take the lead early in the second half.
Dragons fought back, showing great character and composure to clinch a memorable away win.
“We’re building something good here now,” said prop Dillon Lewis.
“We have bit of momentum going into the game next weekend against Montpellier.
“It was great for the boys, very tight right until the end, so it showed a lot of character from the boys to win at the end.
“We left a lot of points out there, so there’s still a lot to work on, we’ll be looking at that next week but great character to come away with the win in the end.”
Friday night marked Lewis’ first start for Dragons since October, having missed several months with injury.
Lewis retuned last weekend off the bench against Bulls, but had a longer contribution on Friday, playing the first 53 minutes before returning to the field for the final eight minutes in place of Owain James.
“It’s nice to be back personally,” said Lewis. “Dragons have had a good season and it’s not ideal sitting and watching that when you want to be a part of it.”
“I’m just happy to be back now and hopefully myself and the team can finish the season strong.”
The result sees Dragons climb to 14th in the URC table, above Welsh rivals Scarlets and will be hoping to go even higher with games against twelfth-placed Edinburgh and the Scarlets to come.
However, before then, Dragons head to Montpellier next weekend in the semi-finals of the EPCR Challenge Cup.
Lewis was part of the Cardiff squad which won the title in Bilbao in 2018 and with Dragons one game away from the Basque city, he and the squad know that this is a crucial week in their season.
“Games like next weekend don’t come around very often,” said Lewis.
“The boys know that and we’ve spoken about it.
“It’s a big week now of training for us, first going through this game, but I feel we’re in a good place as a team and it’s exciting.”
It’s a big week now of training for us, first going through this game, but I feel we’re in a good place as a team and it’s exciting...
