Dragons 5 Blues 16

8:30pm Saturday 15th September 2012 in Sport Photograph of the Author By Chris Kirwan

NEWPORT Gwent Dragons suffered a 16-5 loss to Cardiff Blues at Rodney Parade in the RaboDirect Pro12 this evening.

It was nip and tuck throughout in a low-quality encounter until a pair of late penalties by visiting young gun Rhys Patchell killed off the Dragons.

In the end it was the breakdown prowess of Wales skipper Sam Warburton and his fellow flanker Josh Navidi that did for the hosts – most of the 16 penalties that they conceded came at the contact area.

It was a scrappy, error-strewn first half but the Dragons wouldn’t have complained as they headed to their changing room with a 5-3 lead.

Mistakes, wrong options and penalties at the fiercely-contested breakdown were the theme of a frustrating yet engaging first 40 minutes.

Patchell missed a penalty for the Blues before both Tom Prydie and Steffan Jones failed with shots at goal, the latter striking both post and crossbar from 52 metres.

Patchell got the visitors on the scoreboard on 36 minutes but the Dragons struck straight back, Steffan Jones going over to send Rodney Parade wild after important assists from Pat Leach, Lewis Evans and Phil Price.

The Blues were reduced to 14 men when Nathan Trevett was sin-binned for killing the ball yet it was the visitors who struck while the prop was in the sin bin, Adam Jones’ fumble gifting Alex Cuthbert a run-in for a try that Patchell converted.

The errors continued both out of hand and from the tee with both Prydie and Patchell failing with three-pointers.

But Patchell made no mistake with a late brace that meant the Dragons didn’t even have a bonus point to show for their efforts on a grim night.

Dragons scorer: try – Steffan Jones

Blues scorers: try – A Cuthbert; conversion – R Patchell; penalties – R Patchell (3)

Comments(13)

spaniard says...
9:16pm Sat 15 Sep 12

The Dragons, ha, what an absolute shower, should give their wages to charity, if this is the best performance Darren Edwards can muster from his players then he has to go, this was a disgraceful performance, reminiscent of the worst Paul Turner days

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CaptainB says...
9:37pm Sat 15 Sep 12

Dis-allowed try from Phil Price, Ref fails to punnish blues at subsequent scrums, then gives a ridiculous penalty against the Dragons.
Ref was seeing a different game to me, but too many errors, though Cuthberts try came after a knock on by Jamie Roberts.
I didn't want to be too critical of the Dragons, but again the chances were there against a poor Blues team and we failed to even get a losing bonus point.
Long season ahead, I must have blinked 'cos I didn't see Darren Edwards on the touchline, perhaps I need Bi-focals....

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LSB Bee says...
10:50pm Sat 15 Sep 12

Two poor sides and the Dragon were the poorer of the two - Welsh regional rugby what a joke

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Doberman1 says...
12:19am Sun 16 Sep 12

What a total shambles. The scene was set for us tonight, good crowd, great atmosphere, very average local rivals and yet The Dragons again fluffed their lines with a totally inept performance. I am sure the apologists for Darren Edwards will be on here blaming the ref etc but the harsh reality (yet again) is we are simply nowhere near good enough. Any half decent team will stuff us and most average teams will beat us. No pride,no passion, little ability - it's going to be a long season.

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mep says...
8:28am Sun 16 Sep 12

Newport awarded a penalty in the shadow of the posts and they opt for a scrum,albeit Cardiff were down to 14, why when a scrummage machine would get the better of them, result concede a penalty and throw 3 points away. The only plus was Jonathan Evans who must be first choice scrum half.
Overall an absolute shambles.
If this continues Newport County will be the best supported team at RP.

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the dork says...
10:39am Sun 16 Sep 12

The standard of rugby in this league is very poor. The English leagues 2 & 3 are better than the rabo and the english championship far superior. Last nite and friday at the liberty was truly awfull glad i did not waste time going

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Risca1 says...
12:18pm Sun 16 Sep 12

spaniard wrote:
The Dragons, ha, what an absolute shower, should give their wages to charity, if this is the best performance Darren Edwards can muster from his players then he has to go, this was a disgraceful performance, reminiscent of the worst Paul Turner days
I only wish that the days of Paul Turner would return. Then we used to beat the likes of Ulster and the Blues on a regular basis. Magners coach of the year? Now we are losing to 2nd string Leinster and a very mediocre Blues outfit who just lost at home to Edinburgh. We cannot retain the likes of Tovey who said 'he has gone stale'! Turner cared about the region - now we are left with a shambles. You reap what you sow.

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phantom14 says...
12:28pm Sun 16 Sep 12

I thought the committment was there,but very difficult to build any patterns when you have a ref on the pitch like that, he missed everything!! I called the penalty when they were down to 14 and we had the 5 metre scrum it was obvious.He missed Blues off their feet in at the side etc. Given that neither side dominated the penalty count was probably 80/20 hope it gets reviewed and we dont seehim again!! Even so we still should have won against a poor Blues side who mi dont think could believe their luck with the ref.

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CaptainB says...
12:53pm Sun 16 Sep 12

DRAGONS v BLUES: Appleyard leaves squad in no doubt over what is expected

No need for speeches on derby day, says Dragons skipper Evans

You said it.......

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Dai the Milk says...
2:42pm Sun 16 Sep 12

Welsh rugby is rapidly becoming top heavy, like an inverted pyramid. All the success, all the hopes are pinned on the very fragile, temporary results of the national side. Instead of the strength coming from a solid, grass roots base, it is beginning to look very precarious from where I am sitting. The 'regions/superclubs' look in a mess, the quality of rugby below it looks in an even greater mess. Gates of 4000 cannot compare even with a Wednesday evening game at Pontypool Park 25 years ago and the WRU sees fit to condemn clubs like that to the eternal rubbish bin. Something radical needs to be done before this pyramid, balancing on a very sharp point, falls over.

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corpardguy says...
4:27pm Mon 17 Sep 12

Agree ith Dai Milk, This regional structure, through rampant parochialism , tribal nonsense and poor management is not working. We have one side (Ospreys) who can make a ' fist against class opposition (when they turn up) but basically there is no depth in the Welsh ranks. The fact that players are not playing against top teams every week, and we have for the most part, mediocre coaching is , after 10 years, proving ruinous. Our well coached national side is increasingly relying on naturally gifted stars suddenly appearing (Cuthbert, North etc) Its no way to have a sustainable first class system, and certainly not a world class National team.

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Welshman76 says...
8:09pm Mon 17 Sep 12

corpardguy wrote:
Agree ith Dai Milk, This regional structure, through rampant parochialism , tribal nonsense and poor management is not working. We have one side (Ospreys) who can make a ' fist against class opposition (when they turn up) but basically there is no depth in the Welsh ranks. The fact that players are not playing against top teams every week, and we have for the most part, mediocre coaching is , after 10 years, proving ruinous. Our well coached national side is increasingly relying on naturally gifted stars suddenly appearing (Cuthbert, North etc) Its no way to have a sustainable first class system, and certainly not a world class National team.
Ospreys!! Below the dragons at the moment! Like it r not regional rugby is here to stay with the Welsh team having success with their Grand slams. It's the league that's the problem.

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Dai the Milk says...
11:18pm Mon 17 Sep 12

Welshman76 wrote:
corpardguy wrote:
Agree ith Dai Milk, This regional structure, through rampant parochialism , tribal nonsense and poor management is not working. We have one side (Ospreys) who can make a ' fist against class opposition (when they turn up) but basically there is no depth in the Welsh ranks. The fact that players are not playing against top teams every week, and we have for the most part, mediocre coaching is , after 10 years, proving ruinous. Our well coached national side is increasingly relying on naturally gifted stars suddenly appearing (Cuthbert, North etc) Its no way to have a sustainable first class system, and certainly not a world class National team.
Ospreys!! Below the dragons at the moment! Like it r not regional rugby is here to stay with the Welsh team having success with their Grand slams. It's the league that's the problem.
So the league is the reason why these professional players knock on, spew the ball up, make wrong decisions and fail repeatedly to carry out the basics? Neither side could retain the ball long enough to do anything with it. The league my a***. These are overpaid players in my book.

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