Dragons see off Sharks

The Dragons ended Sale's unbeaten run in the LV=Cup with a shock 28-20 win at Edgeley Park, making light of the suspension of head coach Paul Turner to boost their chances of a semi-final berth.

The Welsh side made a fast start to the second half with tries from wingers Adam Hughes (two) and Aled Brew, aided by 13 points from the boot of fly-half Matthew Jones, then held on in the closing stages.

Sale hit back with three tries of their own from tighthead prop Henry Thomas (two) and substitute loosehead Aston Croall, but could not get any closer than eight points.

However, it was the Sharks who took the lead initially, as a set-piece infringement allowed fly-half Rob Miller to knock over a penalty.

But the home pack were struggling with their footing at the scrum and referee Wayne Barnes gave Jones the chance to restore parity, which he duly took, before the Dragons' fly-half then added another penalty.

The opening half sparked into life when Miller's misplaced pass meant Newport winger Aled Brew could break from his own 22.

Brew was then tracked by Iain Thornley and, at the ensuing ruck, tempers reached boiling point as Dwayne Peel was taken out by Dragons lock Scott Morgan, with the resulting fracas seeing both Morgan and Sharks full-back Nick Macleod sin-binned.

Decisive

The Dragons then took a decisive step towards victory as they ran in three tries in 10 minutes at the start of the second period.

Firstly, centre Matthew Watkins off-loaded to Hughes for the wing to cross, with the wide man repeating the dose minutes later.

Jones converted and straight from the kick-off the Dragons scored again, a fortunate ricochet giving the pacey Brew an easy run for the line and Jones added the extras.

The Welsh side were now in search of a bonus point, but despite initially declining the chance of a relatively easy kick at goal, Jones added another three-pointer to stretch their lead to 25 points.

The home side hit back, though, with young prop Thomas scoring two quick tries, Macleod converting one of the efforts.

Jones was sent to the the sin-bin late on to reduce the visitors to 14 men, but Croall's late try wasn't enough and the Welsh side held on to sit top of Pool Two with one game to go.