Dragons blast past the Warriors
Paul Turner’s Dragons provided the biggest upset of all out of Friday nights action, scoring four tries on their way to thumping the Glasgow Warriors 30-19 at Rodney Parade.
Glasgow came into the game full of confidence following to impressive wins but the Dragons, themselves with one win from their opening two matches, produced a strong performance to completely turn the tables on the form guide.
James Arlidge, scorer of 15 points for the Dragons on the night, scored the first try of the night after just two minutes of play.
His opposite number, Warriors flyhalf Dan Parks, quickly relied with a penalty for his side but the Scottish team were always chasing the game after Jason Tovey and Aled Brew added their names to the scoresheet for the Dragons after 15 and 19 minutes respectively.
The Warriors finally struck back with a try of their own after 30 minutes – wing Colin Shaw going over for the visitors.
A couple Parks penalties also helped to keep Sean Lineen’s men in touch, going into the break just six points adrift at 22-16.
It took just eight minutes of the second period for the Dragons to wrap up their bonus point. Stand-in captain, Ashley Smith, finished off nicely after a clever grubber kick following an early Parks penalty.
With an eleven point lead the home side closed up shop and looked to put the game to bed with as little a fuzz as possible.
The Warriors, after six changes to their size, seemed just unable to find the necessary magic to break the Dragons and were constantly had their own promising attacks disrupted by unforced errors.
These two teams will go head-to-head next month again when they meet in the Heineken Cup group stages.
The scorers:
For the Dragons:
Tries: Arlidge, Tovey, Brew, Smith
Cons: Arlidge 2
Pens: Tovey 2
For Glasgow:
Tries: Shaw
Cons: Parks
Pens: Parks 4
Dragons: 15 Jason Tovey, 14 Aled Brew, 13 Tom Riley, 12 Ashley Smith ©, 11 Richard Fussell, 10 James Arlidge, 9 Wayne Evans, 8 Joe Bearman, 7 Gavin Thomas, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Rob Sidoli, 4 Adam Jones, 3 Nigel Hall, 2 Steve Jones , 1 Ali McKenzie.
Replacements: 16 Duane Goodfield, 17 Hugh Gustafson, 18 Gethin Robinson, 19 Lewis Evans, 20 Grant Webb, 21 Martyn Thomas, 22 Danny Lee.
Glasgow: 15 Bernardo Stortoni, 14 Rob Dewey, 13 Peter Murchie, 12 Graeme Morrison (c), 11 Colin Shaw, 10 Dan Parks, 9 Mark McMillan, 8 Johnnie Beattie, 7 John Barclay, 6 Calum Forrester, 5 Dan Turner, 4 Tim Barker, 3 Ed Kalman, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Justin Va’a.
Replacements: 16 Pat MacArthur, 17 Kevin Tkachuk, 18 Alastair Kellock, 19 Kelly Brown, 20 Colin Gregor, 21 Peter Horne, 22 Hefin O’Hare.
Referee: Dudley Phillips
Assistant Referees: Phil Connell (WRU), David Jones (WRU).
