CHRIS KIRWAN SAYS: Give Dragons credit where it’s due (From South Wales Argus)

CHRIS KIRWAN SAYS: Give Dragons credit where it’s due

9:10am Thursday 28th February 2013 in Sport

WHEN ‘no win’ is used with regard to Newport Gwent Dragons this season it is unfortunately followed by ‘in X games’.

Last weekend was a more traditional ‘no-win’ situation.

Fresh from a 60-3 drubbing by Glasgow they were pitted against Zebre in the RaboDirect Pro12.

The Italians have lost all of their games since their summer inception and welcomed the Dragons to Parma amid a snowstorm that turned the pitch into a bog.

But the region secured the win in awful conditions, digging deep for a narrow 14-13 victory against opponents that are improving dramatically.

Zebre have pushed better teams than the Dragons close yet they avoided the ignominy of becoming their first scalp.

It wasn’t a win that should lead to the celebration bunting being put up but it was job done in tricky circumstances.

Instead the response from plenty of quarters was ‘it’s only Zebre’.

Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.