Dragons hold off Edinburgh
PRO14 REPORT: The Dragons won their first Pro14 match since September as they held off Edinburgh 18-12 in a gritty battle at Rodney Parade.
Two tries from Jared Rosser set them on their way to an invaluable result that takes them above the Southern Kings in Conference B.
An Edinburgh score from Darcy Graham with time running out put late pressure on the Dragons, but they showed impressive character to deny one final push from the Scottish side.
A cagey opening to proceedings saw both sides struggling to get points on the board, with just a Jason Tovey penalty to show for the opening 20 minutes of rugby.
And it was the hosts who ignited the game through a moment of magic from Rosser.
Jordan Williams broke the Edinburgh line well, feeding the ball wide to the expectant Rosser, who showed jet-heeled pace to squeeze round Henry Pyrgos and loop under the posts.
Edinburgh thought that they were back in the game when Chris Dean scrambled over after solid scrummaging, but for referee Stuart Berry to adjudge – with the help of TMO – that he had used his knees to propel himself over after being grounded.
But they were not to be deterred, grabbing that much-needed foothold on the stroke of half-time as Dean scythed through a resolute Dragons defence before feeding Dougie Fife out wide to dot down.
They couldn’t capitalise after the break, however, as the Dragons kept hold of the ball for what seemed like an age.
The Edinburgh defence stood firm as the hosts gained ground, but the Dragons showed patience; relentless ball-carrying in the middle of the park created gaps out wide and when Williams again fed Rosser, he had fresh grass to run into and score once more.
They stretched their lead to 13 points with just a quarter-of-an-hour to go with a Tovey penalty, and it looked as though they might have done enough to earn a first win in four Pro14 matches.
But when Graham scurried through, it seemed initially as though excellent recovery work from Hallam Amos had done enough to flip the Edinburgh winger over and avoid a grounding.
A lengthy TMO decision concluded otherwise, however, with a Jaco van der Walt conversion bringing the visitors within a single score and making the Rodney Parade faithful sweat.
And despite a missed Tovey kick to seal things with less than five minutes on the clock, the Dragons held firm in dramatic circumstances for a well-earned win.
The scorers:
For Dragons:
Tries: Rosser 2
Con: Tovey
Pens: Tovey 2
For Edinburgh:
Tries: Fife, Graham
Con: Van der Walt
Teams:
Dragons: 15 Jordan Williams, 14 Jared Rosser, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Jarryd Sage, 11 Hallam Amos, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Rhodri Williams, 8 Ollie Griffiths, 7 Nic Cudd, 6 Harrison Keddie, 5 Lewis Evans, 4 Rynard Landman, 3 Lloyd Fairbrother, 2 Richard Hibbard (captain), 1 Ryan Bevington.
Replacements: 16 Rhys Lawrence, 17 Aaron Jarvis, 18 Leon Brown, 19 Brandon Nansen, 20 James Benjamin, 21 Rhodri Davies, 22 Arwel Robson, 23 Adam Warren.
Edinburgh: 15 Dougie Fife, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 James Johnstone, 12 Chris Dean, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Simon Hickey, 9 Henry Pyrgos (captain), 8 Luke Hamilton, 7 Ally Miller, 6 Ben Toolis, 5 Callum Hunter-Hill, 4 James Hodgson, 3 Pietro Ceccarelli, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 David Cherry, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Murray McCallum, 19 Callum Atkinson, 20 Lewis Wynne, 21 Sean Kennedy, 22 Jaco van der Walt, 23 Juan Pablo. Socino
Referee: Stuart Berry (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Adam Jones (Wales), Wayne Davies (Wales)
TMO: Sean Brickell (Wales)
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