Dragons slay Warriors

Newport Gwent Dragons chalked up their first win in Pool 2 with a 22-14 win over Glasgow Warriors at Rodney Parade.

After narrowly losing at Gloucester last week, the Dragons kept their hopes of making Heineken Cup progress alive with a deserved win, but after a second successive defeat, Glasgow already look to have little realistic chance of qualification for the knockout stages.

Three tries before the interval gave the Dragons a healthy half-time lead, but they were unable to add to their score in the second half as the Scottish side rallied.

After both sides missed early kicks, the Dragons took the lead after 12 minutes. They decided against taking another kick at goal and found a touch on the Warriors goal-line.

Possession was secured and Adam Jones was driven over for the try which James Arlidge converted.

The Dragons dominated the next 10 minutes but careless handling cost them the chance of extending their lead.

Against the run of play the Warriors levelled the scores when they produced an excellent flowing movement which ended when John Beattie strolled through a huge gap in the home defence for a try under the posts, which Dan Parks converted.

But that success was tempered by the loss of Beattie to the sin bin soon afterwards for trampling on an opponent.

The Dragons took immediate advantage with Arlidge dropping a goal to give them a 10-7 lead on the half-hour. When Aled Brew was penalised, Parks had a chance to level once more, but again was wide with his kick.

Quality

Just before half-time the Dragons produced two quality tries.

For the first they forced a turnover on halfway and moved the ball quickly and skilfully for Luke Charteris to crash over.

From the restart Glasgow pressed but the Dragons broke away through good work from Brew and Rhodri Gomer-Davies, to set up a ruck on halfway.

Wayne Evans, the scrum-half, was alert enough to put in a kick to the blindside for Martyn Thomas to outpace the defence, collect and score. Arlidge converted the try to make it 22-7 at the interval.

Dragons flanker Dan Lydiate was yellow-carded after 45 minutes for an illegal tackle and the hosts conceded a try just before his return when replacement Kevin Tkachuk barged his way over. Parks converted with a superb kick from the touchline.

The Dragons threw away a golden opportunity for a bonus point when Gomer-Davies should have fed Will Harries for a clear run in, but the centre dummied and the chance was lost.

The game continued at a frantic pace, but there were to be no further scores as the Dragons defence held on in the last five minutes, before Parks missed a penalty with the last kick of the match to deprive Glasgow of even a bonus point.