Gloucester slay Dragons

Vainikolo: Two tries

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Gloucester are edging towards a place in the EDF Energy Cup semi-finals after scoring a 25-20 victory against Newport Gwent Dragons at Kingsholm.

Both sides needed victory to put them within a draw of qualifying ahead of Wasps at the top of Pool A.

The odds were on a Gloucester victory before kick-off given both their star-studded international line-up and home advantage.

Meanwhile, Newport came into the match making nine changes from the side which gave such a strong display against Bath in the Heineken Cup.

Yet the Welsh region, who were ahead with seven minutes to go of the first half, put up a fight throughout the match.

The Dragons more than held their own for the first 20 minutes, with a couple of attacks bringing them chances.

Nevertheless it was Gloucester who had the best chance of all and they should really have gone ahead when fly-half Willie Walker sliced through the visiting defence.

However, his pass to England winger Lesley Vainikolo went to ground.

Gloucester then went ahead in a well-worked move which saw Walker's inside pass setting up Vainikolo for a try under the posts.

The score seemed ominous. And yet the Dragons were back in it three minutes later after centre Rhodri Gomar-Davies darted past Olly Barkley.

He then released winger Richard Fussell, who raced over to touch down from 25 metres.

With two minutes of the half left, the Dragons went ahead when Grant Webb scored their second - the New Zealander carrying a few Gloucester defenders over the line with him for good measure.

But Gloucester came back to level the match at 12-12 by half-time - hooker Scott Lawson cheekily throwing the ball to Carlos Nieto at an attacking line-out before the prop sprinted over in the corner.

The Dragons took the lead once more early in the second half when fly-half Shaun Connor, who had earlier converted Webb's try, kicked a 38-metre penalty.

Struggling

Gloucester were struggling at this juncture and appeared their own worst enemies as handling and kicking mistakes littered their game.

But they turned the tables again and started to put pressure on as their opponents starting making wholesale changes.

The appearance of Dragons captain Tom Willis failed to have the desired effect, while lock Adam Jones took a knock and prop Adam Black was sin-binned on the hour for coming in on the wrong side of a ruck.

Gloucester scored again when full-back Iain Balshaw broke through the middle for England centre Barkley to feed Vainikolo once again, the winger this time touching down in the corner.

Balshaw then grabbed a score of his own to put Gloucester a converted try ahead.

But the game was far from finished, with Newport given a helping hand when replacement flanker Apo Satala, who was on for barely two minutes, was sin-binned under his own posts.

Barkley put over a late penalty but the Dragons scored a deserved losing bonus point when Jason Tovey went over in the corner late on.