ANOTHER pre-season friendly, another substantial reverse for the Dragons – but by no means was it all doom and gloom at the home of the current English champions.

A 50-24 defeat to Exeter Chiefs made it 161 points and 25 tries conceded by Bernard Jackman’s men in their three warm-up games this summer.

However, the Dragons scored four tries of their own at Sandy Park in Devon and put in a display that head coach Jackman was enthused about, more so considering the circumstances.

The Irishman revealed after the final whistle that 14 players and two members of staff had been struck down with gastroenteritis in the lead up to the clash.

Training on Thursday had to be cancelled because of the outbreak and some of the squad affected still made the trip down the M5 to play a part in proceedings.

“Unfortunately we had a bout of gastroenteritis during the week so we had 14 players ill,” said Jackman.

“It’s the worst epidemic I’ve seen in 20 years, I’ve never seen 14 players and two staff go down with it.

“We had to shut down the place, it was horrendous, and the boys were very sick.

“We had to cancel training on Thursday and we had a lot of players that played who were probably weak from the sickness and ran out of steam a little bit.

“We had so many players who were sick during the week that they came off early and then some of the guys who came on had been sick.”

If a bug in the camp wasn’t bad enough, the Dragons started Saturday’s encounter by conceding a penalty try inside the opening 10 minutes after giving away a succession of penalties.

Given the way the Dragons fared at Northampton a week previously, where they lost 71-21, the fans who had travelled from Gwent may have feared the worst.

However, their side didn’t panic and hit back almost immediately when Hallam Amos made a telling midfield break, offloaded to Adam Warren and the centre did the rest. Angus O’Brien converted.

On trial with the Rodney Parade region, Dan Suter was hoping to impress Jackman and his coaching staff, but the prop’s afternoon came to an end through injury after just 16 minutes.

Meanwhile, Amos was enjoying his second run out since coming back from a long-term injury, and he looked dangerous in attack.

His defence was a little hit and miss and he was grateful when opposite number Olly Woodburn knocked on following a missed tackle by the Wales international.

Not long after, Woodburn did get on the scoresheet when he was on the end of some slick handling by the Exeter backs. Henry Slade added the extras.

Again, the Dragons responded in kind, with Warren gathering a chip over the top. O’Brien converted again to level things up.

The equalising score should have come moments earlier though, only for full-back Zane Kirchner to blow a great chance when he held onto the ball with support either side of him.

The Chiefs regained the lead through full-back Max Bodilly’s try, Slade converting, while the Dragons were guilty of falling off tackles that should have been made.

It looked like the hosts were going to register a fourth try just before the interval but Kirchner intercepted near his own line and started a move that should have resulted in a try.

The South African offloaded to O’Brien, Amos and Jack Dixon took the ball on and Adam Hughes seemed set for a comfortable run in but Warren’s final pass was ruled forward.

Jackman made several changes for the second half with Elliot Dee, Jared Rosser and Connor Edwards all coming in, and the first of those replacements played a part in the Dragons’ third try.

However, it was the Chiefs, through number eight Sam Simmonds, who stretched their advantage to 28-14 after the restart, then Dee fed Hughes to close the deficit at the other end.

Dorian Jones, Sarel Pretorius, James Benjamin and Luke Garrett were introduced by Jackman in one fell swoop with half an hour to go, and moments later it was 28-24.

A high ball from Jones caused confusion in the Exeter defence, Kirchner disrupted the Chiefs and Pretorius pounced.

But just as the Dragons seemed as though they could go in front for the first time in the game, Exeter replacements Gareth Steenson and Thomas Waldrom crossed to give the hosts a 40-24 lead.

And there was another blow for the Dragons in the closing stages when Nic Cudd was sin binned, leaving a stretched defence unable to stop James Short touching down for Exeter’s seventh try.

The home side’s eighth and final try came off the last play of the game, Italian centre Michele Campagnaro brushing of some tired tackling to see the Chiefs hit 50.

Scorers, Exeter: Tries – Penalty try, Woodburn, Bodilly, Simmonds, Waldrom, Steenson, Short, Campagnaro; Cons – Slade (3), Steenson

Dragons: Tries – Warren (2), Hughes, Pretorius; Cons: O'Brien (2)

Exeter: M Bodilly; O Woodburn (H Strong 74), M Campagnaro, I Whitten (G Steenson 46), J Short; H Slade (S Morley 64), N White (J Maunder 48); B Moon (B Keast 59), J Yeandle (capt, S Malton 48), H Williams (T Francis 48), D Dennis, J Hill (W van der Sluys 74), S Skinner (D Armand 59), D Armand (T Waldrom 48, S Skinner 70), S Simmonds (E Holmes 76)

Dragons: Z Kirchner (A Warren 68); A Hughes (W Talbot-Davies 59), A Warren (C Meyer 46), J Dixon (C Meyer 28-32, C Edwards 41), H Amos (J Rosser 41); A O’Brien (D Jones 50), C Davies (S Pretorious 50); B Harris (L Garrett 50), G Ellis (E Dee 41, G Ellis 76), D Suter (L Brown 15), M Screech (M Williams 35, M Screech 56), R Landman (M Williams 59), J Thomas, N Cudd, R Blake (J Benjamin 50)