The Dragons returned to the victory trail when they beat Edinburgh 32-12 in their PRO12 clash in Newport on Friday.
A near faultless kicking display from both Tom Prydie and Steffan Jones helped the Dragons to this commanding win.
The home side got off to an unfortunate start when Dan Lydiate hobbled off with an ankle injury after just a couple of minutes and their luck didn't improve quickly as they conceded the opening try inside the first quarter of an hour.
Edinburgh exploited the space well, showing good hands out wide to put young winger Tom Brown over in the corner before 20-year-old fly-half Harry Leonard confidently stroked over the conversion from close to the touchline.
Leonard missed with two penalty attempts as the half wore on though and Tom Prydie was nowhere near as wasteful for the Dragons, kicking four penalties to put the hosts in front in the latter stages of the first half.
And they went into the interval with a 17-7 lead because, after Steve Jones and Sean Cox were both sent to the sin bin late on, prop Phil Price rumbled over in the corner to stretch the advantage.
Another yellow card for Ross Rennie early in the second half meant that the visitors were down to 13 men for a period and the Dragons made the most of the numerical advantage with another Prydie penalty and a drop-goal from Steffan Jones.
The flying Dutchman Tim Visser did get his customary try around the hour mark but a sixth Prydie penalty and Jones' second drop-goal of the night extended the hosts' lead to beyond two converted tries and there was no way back for Edinburgh.
Jones even added a third drop-goal late on as the Dragons celebrated a convincing victory and maintained their excellent record against Edinburgh after beating them both home and away last season.
The scorers:
For Dragons:
Try: Price
Pens: Prydie 6
Drop goals: S Jones 3
For Edinburgh:
Tries: Brown, Visser
Con: Leonard
Dragons: 15 Dan Evans, 14 Adam Hughes, 13 Pat Leach, 12 Andy Tuilagi, 11 Tom Prydie, 10 Steffan Jones, 9 Jonathan Evans, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Lewis Evans (c), 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Adam Jones, 4 Ian Nimmo, 3 Dan Way, 2 Steve Jones, 1 Phil Price.
Replacements: 16 Sam Parry, 17 Aaron Coundley, 18 Nathan Buck, 19 Jevon Groves, 20 Tom Brown, 21 Liam Davies, 22 Ashley Smith, 23 Will Harries.
Edinburgh: 15 Greig Tonks, 14 Tom Brown, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Ben Atiga, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Harry Leonard, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Netani Talei, 7 Ross Rennie, 6 Stuart McInally, 5 Sean Cox (c), 4 Robert McAlpine, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Andy Titterrell, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Alun Walker, 17 John Yapp, 18 Lewis Niven, 19 Dimitri Basilaia, 20 Roddy Grant, 21 Chris Leck, 22 John Houston, 23 Dougie Fife.
Referee: Johnny Lacey (Italy)
Comments
melkdave says...
A real shame for D.Lydgate and Wales ,and whenyou look at the teams you wonder how did Edinburgh lose this one.Well indisapline ,is the answer,and an unability to exacute .Just wonder if Edinburgh havent got one eye on the HEC again this season,i hope not to the extent ,they ignore their league games again ,it just doesnt seem fair to their fans ,who support them week in week out imo.
Posted 08:05 29th September 2012