Landman sees red as Connacht win

 

The South African lock was dismissed by Scottish referee Lloyd Linton for deliberately elbowing the Connacht flyhalf Jack Carty in the face after he had kicked the ball downfield. 

 

Linton reviewed the incident with TMO Derek Bevan before pulling out his red card.

 

It was an act of madness that cost his team dearly on the day and could yet cost him a place in the European Rugby Challenge Cup quarterfinal against rivals Cardiff Blues at the beginning of April.

 

The Dragons had already lost control of the early exchanges by the time Landman trudged off. 

 

Tom Prydie kicked a long range penalty to open the scoring, but Connacht came storming back with a try at the posts by centre Craig Ronaldson off a close range lineout and a conversion and penalty from Carty.

 

The weather conditions were appalling, and there was standing water at both ends of the pitch, so it was obviously going to be a close contest.

 

Things simply went from bad to worse for the first 10 minutes the Dragons were down to 14 men.

 

They lost two scrums, saw Carty thankfully miss with two more kicks at goal and then conceded another try from a close range lineout, this time to No.8 Eoghan Masterson.

 

Carty’s conversion left the Dragons with a mountain to climb and needing some inspiration, and on came old man of Gwent rugby, Ian Gough.

 

Off came Nic Cudd and on went the 38-year-old to make his 100th appearance for the Dragons.

 

No sooner had he come onto the field than the scrum problems were solved, the home side nicked a Connacht lineout and set off on a 30 metre driving maul.

 

It may not have ended in a try, but that one moment transformed the game and brought the belief rushing back into a Dragons team who had been to Dublin and become the first team in 21 games to beat the reigning champions Leinster at the RDS in their last outing.

 

Suddenly all the momentum was with the home side and their pressure allowed Hallam Amos to nip over on the narrow side of a quick ruck in the Connacht 22 and cross for a try.

 

Prydie couldn’t add the extras, but he did land a penalty with the last kick of the half to narrow the gap to six points.

 

The second half became a game of inches and kicking. Connacht controlled the ball better and their kicking game was infinitely superior to that of the home side.

 

There was stalemate for virtually the whole of the third quarter before Connacht made their territory tell as they tuned the screw with two penalties from the superb Darragh Leader.

 

Back came the Dragons and after some great driving play by the forwards, Jack Dixon managed to squeeze over the line for a try which Prydie converted to cut the gap to five points with 15 minutes to go.

 

Connacht’s superior kicking game and tigerish tackling kept them pegged back in their own half.

 

And when Amos tried to kick clear from his 22 his kick was charged down by Mick Kearney, who followed up to grab the touchdown for the try that ended any hopes the Dragons still had to turning things around.

 

Leader added the conversion and it mattered little that Amos grabbed a second try with the last move of the game, Prydie clinching a losing bonus point with his conversion.

 

 

Tries: Amos 2, Dixon

Cons: Prydie 2

Pens: Prydie 2

 

Tries: Ronaldson, Masterson, Kearney

Cons: Carty 2, Leader

Pens: Carty, Leader 2

 

Red card: Rynard Landman (Dragons, 14 mins – foulplay, use of the elbow)

 

 

Dragons: 15 Jason Tovey, 14 Tom Prydie, 13 Pat Leach, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Hallam Amos, 10 Dorian Jones, 9 Jonathan Evans, 8 Nick Crosswell, 7 Nic Cudd, 6 James Thomas, 5 Rynard Landman (captain), 4 Andrew Coombs, 3 Brok Harris, 2 T. Rhys Thomas, 1 Boris Stankovich.

Replacements: 16 Rhys Buckley, 17 Phil Price, 18 Dan Way, 19 Ian Gough, 20 James Benjamin, 21 Richie Rees, 22 Ashley Smith, 23 Matthew Pewtner.

 

Connacht: 15 Darragh Leader, 14 Danie Poolman, 13 Dave McSharry, 12 Craig Ronaldson, 11 Matt Healy, 10 Jack Carty, 9 John Cooney, 8 Eoghan Masterson, 7 Jake Heenan, 6 John Muldoon (captain), 5 Aly Muldowney, 4 Quinn Roux, 3 Nathan White, 2 Tom McCartney, 1 Denis Buckley.

Replacements: 16 Shane Delahunt, 17 Rodney Ah You, 18 Finlay Bealham, 19 Mick Kearney, 20 George Naoupu, 21 Ian Porter, 22 Niyi Adeolokun, 23 Tiernan O'Halloran.

 

Referee: Lloyd Linton (Scotland)

Assistant Referees: Rhys Thomas (Wales), Sean Brickell (Wales)

TMO: Gareth Simmonds (Wales)