THE Dragons A team put the power on in the second half at Ebbw Vale to condemn Hong Kong to defeat in their World Cup warm-up in freezing conditions.

The Rodney Parade region’s youngsters endured a tough, if productive, Celtic Cup campaign with five losses and a win against Connacht Eagles.

They were bolstered by a handful of senior figures for the clash at a perishing Eugene Cross Park and it was that experience that made the difference with tries by Ryan Bevington, Ben Fry and Dan Babos adding to Tom Hoppe’s score to turn around around a 19-7 half-time deficit.

Both sides scored four tries but it was the place kicking of young fly-half Evan Lloyd that proved to be the difference after his forwards prospered from being direct.

Hong Kong, led by former Dragons coach Leigh Jones and ex-Dragons forward Andrew Hall, are preparing for a qualifying tournament in Marseille where they will battle Canada, Germany and Kenya for the final place at next year’s World Cup.

The reward is the chance to lock horns with New Zealand, South Africa and Italy in what, in truth, should be mismatches at Japan 2019.

The tourists swapped the 29 degrees of Hong Kong for Eugene Cross Park, regularly proven to be colder than Neptune.

Wales famously used cryotherapy in their pre-World Cup training camp in Poland in 2011 but the Asian champions opted for the cheaper version of Blaenau Gwent.

They showed flashes of what they can do, especially their sevens specialists, and will now try to cause an upset in the south of France.

South Wales Argus:

Hong Kong were on the front foot from the off with their mixture of a neat tight game and some serious pace out wide, notably wing Max Denmark and centre Max Woodward.

Yet it was their pack that did the damage to open the scoring after 11 minutes when they hammered away at the line after a driving lineout and blindside Mike Parfitt reached over for a try that fly-half Ben Rimene converted.

Young fly-half Evan Lloyd was pulling the strings quite nicely for the Dragons and his clever grubber through had wing George Gasson and back rower James Benjamin interested only for the ball to just go into touch.

The hosts kept pressing but the World Cup hopefuls stood firm when a pair of penalties were kicked to the corner.

The away offences kept coming in a high-tempo game and the Dragons opted to go for the posts after 24 minutes but the 40-metre effort was too ambitious for Lloyd, who had to sacrifice accuracy (and technique) for distance.

Home pressure was mounting but without reward with a handling error in the 22 ending one attack that featured the always pleasing sight of props on the charge with Josh Reynolds and Chris Coleman combining well.

Yet Hong Kong came agonisingly close to stretching their advantage on the half hour when Rimene was a touch fortunate to regather from a charge down and then put in a deft kick for Denmark to show his remarkable pace.

Running out of space in front of the Clive Burgess Terrace and perhaps reluctant to dive on the hard surface in freezing conditions, the winger knocked on but their second try came swiftly.

The pack shoved the Dragons’ scrum off their own ball and piled away at the line before scrum-half Liam Slatem sniped over.

To the young hosts’ credit they responded immediately with full-back Carwyn Penny’s break and offload allowing Tom Hoppe, fresh from a spell playing club rugby in New Zealand, to go over.

Lloyd converted but the Dragons A team mirrored Bernard Jackman’s seniors with their inability to close out the half; an overthrown lineout in the 22 gifted a flanker Toby Fenn a try that Rimene converted for a 19-7 lead at the break.

The Dragons rang the changes at the break with first teamers Ryan Bevington, Rhys Lawrence, Dan Suter, Joe Davies and Jack Dixon coming on in a bid to turn the tide.

They helped make it a one-score game after 54 minutes when a patient, multi-phase attack ended with ex-Wales loosehead Bevington using his bulk to cross under the posts, making Lloyd’s conversion for 19-14 an easy one.

Suddenly, with the introduction of experience, it was all Dragons and they had their noses in front for the first time after 65 minutes when flanker Ben Fry was at the bottom of a driving lineout.

Lloyd converted superbly from the right touchline to make it 21-19 but the lead didn’t last long as Hong Kong’s smart handling from lineout ball led to replacement Casey Stone going over, although full-back Jamie Hood smacked the left post with the conversion to leave the score at 24-21 with 10 minutes left.

Back came the Dragons and it was 28-24 when wing George Gasson burst through powerfully and kept his cool to put scrum-half Dan Babos under the sticks, Lloyd converting.

The hosts made hard work of closing out the win, with some infuriating errors, but Hong Kong couldn’t respond.

Dragons A: Carwyn Penny, Joe Goodchild, Tom Hoppe, Connor Edwards, George Gasson, Evan Lloyd, Rhodri Davies; Josh Reynolds, Will Griffiths, Chris Coleman, James Thomas, Rynard Landman, Ben Fry, Lennon Greggains (captain), James Benjamin. Replacements: Rhys Lawrence, Ryan Bevington, Dan Suter, Joe Davies, Rob Brookson, Dan Babos, Jack Dixon, Llew Smith.

Scorers: tries – T Hoppe, R Bevington, B Fry, G Gasson; conversions – E Lloyd (4)

Hong Kong scorers: tries – M Parfitt, L Slatem, T Fenn, C Stone; conversions – B Rimene (2)