Dragons condemn Connacht

Connacht will finish bottom of the Magners League after slumping to a 27-14 defeat against the Dragons in Newport on Sunday.

The Welsh side were deserved winners but should have collected a bonus point win against a very limited Connacht side.

It was a vital game for the Dragons as a loss would almost certainly have ended any hopes they had of securing automatic qualification for next season's Heineken Cup.

They were also desperate to avenge their worst performance of the season - a 39-17 defeat at the hands of Connacht in Galway earlier this month.

The home side had the first real opportunity for points but James Arlidge missed with a wide-angled penalty from 25 metres out and the opening quarter was scoreless.

The Dragons eventually took the lead after 35 minutes when Arlidge kicked a simple 30 metre penalty after Connacht were off-side in midfield.

From the restart Connacht again offended, allowing Arlidge to place his penalty kick within five metres of the visitors' line and the Dragons produced a pre-planned move from the resulting set-piece, which allowed Joe Bearman to score. Arlidge converted to make it 10-0 at the interval.

Within a minute of the restart Connacht were dealt a further blow when their captain, Gavin Duffy, was sin-binned.

Referee Graham Knox evened things up moments later, though, by yellow carding Rhodri Gomer-Davies for holding on to the ball after a tackle.

Keatley missed with a 40 metre penalty opportunity on 47 minutes, but the outside half made amends minutes later by running creatively to set up a try for Fionn Carr, which Keatley converted.

Gomer-Davies returned from the sin-bin and within minutes he drove over from close range, as Arlidge converted to extend the Dragons' lead to 17-7 with a quarter of the match to go.

After 65 minutes the game was effectively over when Rhys Thomas scored near the posts and Arlidge again converted before adding another penalty with a well struck kick from near halfway.

Connacht showed they still had some life by producing a fine move for Keith Matthews to score which Keatley converted, but any hopes of a comeback ended when Carr was sin-binned for holding back a Dragons player without the ball.

This enabled the Dragons to dominate the remainder of play as they went in search of their fourth try to secure a valuable bonus point, but somehow the visitors' defence held out.