Dragons 21
Connacht 16
Elgan Alderman reports from Rodney Parade
CONNACHT’S DEFENCE OF their Guinness PRO12 title hit another speed bump as they went down 21-16 at the struggling Newport Gwent Dragons.
Niyi Adeolokun’s late score was not enough for the Galway side after Ashton Hewitt’s brace of tries and the boot of Angus O’Brien put the Dragons on-course for only their second win of the season.
The result lifts the Dragons above Connacht in the league table, with both sides on just 11 points after eight rounds.
Connacht were the architects of their own downfall from the start at Rodney Parade. Dragons scrum-half Sarel Pretorius scooped up the ball from a loose lineout and got the Welsh backline moving.
The ball was worked wide to left-wing Hewitt, who accelerated past full-back Tiernan O’Halloran to score.
O’Brien added the conversion before adding a penalty to give the hosts an early 10-0
advantage.
Connacht outside-half Jack Carty struck a long-range penalty to cut the gap to seven points, but his opposite number O’Brien was on-hand to strike a drop-goal to restore their 10-point advantage.
But Connacht earned a penalty straight from the restart, and Carty was on-target to make it 13-6 on the stroke of half-time.
Pat Lam’s team-talk obviously had little effect as the defending PRO12 champions fell further behind after the break. And it was that man Hewitt who pounced to score his second try of the game.
Centre Sam Beard saw his 21-year-old team-mate turn on the after-burners and sent a well weighted kick through for the flying wing to score.
O’Brien hit his second drop-goal of the game to build on their advantage, but Carty landed an easy penalty to make it 21-9.
Connacht finished strongly, but it was too little, too late. An arcing run from left-wing Stacey Ili drew two defenders. He managed to off-load to right-wing Adeolokun, who comes on the angle for a tremendous try.
Carty converted to cut the gap to five points, but Lam’s men failed to get downfield for the decisive score.
Dragons scorers:
Tries: Hewitt x2Conversions: O’Brien
Penalties: O’Brien
Drop Goals: O’Brien x2
Connacht scorers:
Tries: Adeolokun
Conversions: Carty
Penalties: Carty x3
DRAGONS: T Prydie; P Howard, S Beard (A Warren, 63), J Dixon, A Hewitt; A O’Brien (GR Jones, 70), S Pretorius (T Knoyle, 67); P Price (S Hobbs, 53), TR Thomas, B Harris (L Fairbrother, 63), N Crosswell, R Landman (M Screech, 63), L Evans (capt) (N Cudd, 50), O Griffiths, E Jackson.
CONNACHT: T O’Halloran; N Adeolokun, B Aki, P Robb (C Kelleher, 59), S Ili; J Carty (S O’Leary, 79), C Blade; JP Cooney (D Robertson-McCoy, 63), S Delahunt (D Heffernan, 52), C Carey, Q Roux, A Browne (J Cannon, 5), E McKeon, J Heenan, J Muldoon (capt).
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
