Biarritz blitz slays Dragons

Biarritz completed a double over Newport-Gwent Dragons to cement their place at the top of Heineken Cup Pool 2.

In a match moved to Parc-y-Scarlets after the original fixture on Friday was postponed due to a frozen Rodney Parade pitch, the Dragons were made to pay for failing to turn first-half pressure into points as they went down 26-8.

Star of the show was France scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili who scored two tries and contributed all but three of his side's points in a man-of-the-match display.

Dragons went in front when Richard Fussell won the chase to touch down after Joe Bearman's fine break and kick ahead.

Yet in spite of dominating the first period, the Welsh side trailed by a single point at half-time. James Arlidge's kicking radar was somewhat off target with the Dragons' fly-half landing just a single penalty.

Yachvili, on the other hand, was unerringly accurate and landed three penalties to give Biarritz the advantage at the turnaround.

Arlidge was just short with another penalty within minutes of the restart and their problems worsened when Aled Brew was sin-binned for taking out full-back Nicolas Brusque. Yachvili missed with the resulting penalty but Damien Traille still extended the French side's lead to four points soon after with a drop goal.

The Dragons looked like weathering the storm for the remainder of Brew's absence but a superb Biarritz lineout move saw Magnus Lund put Yachvili away to score behind the posts, the scum-half converting his own try to give the visitors breathing space.

Yachvili was wide with a penalty on the hour mark and the Welsh side had a chance to make him pay, but Martyn Thomas could not find James Harris out wide and the opportunity went begging.

Thomas again found a gap five minutes from the end but his teammates failed to get up in support and Yachvili completed his masterclass on 77 minutes with an interception which he converted to sew up a fourth win in Pool 2.