COACH Matt O’Brien praised the fight showed by the Dragons youngsters after their friendly defeat against a powerful Bristol side.
The six-try Bears ran out 40-19 winners at Clifton RFC thanks to scores by lock Joe Batley, scrum-halves Harry Randall and Kieran Marmion (2), full-back Max Malins and wing Siva Naulago.
However, the Dragons showed signs of promise in their build-up to the September 21 United Rugby Championship opener against the Ospreys.
Head coach Dai Flanagan held a number of seniors back for Friday’s trip to Bath but the inexperienced squad kept the scoreline respectable thanks to tries by back row forward Owen Conquer, full-back Jordan Williams against his former side and lock Joe Peard, who was appearing on permit from Newport RFC.
Bristol fielded the likes of England internationals Malins, Ellis Genge and Harry Randall, Fiji centre Kalaveti Ravouvou, America fly-half AJ MacGinty, Ireland half-back Marmion and influential hooker Harry Thacker but attack coach O’Brien felt the Dragons stood up to the challenge.
“It was another valuable 80 minutes in little bit different conditions of the thunder, lightning and rain,” he said. “It was great to expose 30-odd boys [to this level of rugby] and was definitely worthwhile.
“The players were awesome, Bristol were pretty loaded and that as a great experience for our youngsters.
“The pack that finished the second half had an average age of around 20 and they showed some really good fight at the end.
“It was a bit of a sticky game and I probably would have liked us to kick a bit more in those conditions but there was plenty to learn from it.
“There was a lot of good within the game and now we are looking forward to a few of the boys coming back against Bath. It will be great for some of the youngsters that stay in the group to get on field with them.”
With 12 senior Dragons outings to his name, Wales Under-20s captain Ryan Woodman was experienced compared to some of his teammates.
The pack that finished the game was made up of a novice front row of Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths, Oli Burrows and Owain James, young lock Nick Thomas next to Newport’s Peard and Woodman alongside Sam Scarfe (a hooker by trade) and Evans Minto.
Woodman and Scarfe are the only players of that eight to have played competitive games for the Dragons.
“We will take the positives from it because they were a fully-loaded, big, phusocal Bristol side,” said the back rower.
“There are areas across the field to improve for Bath but we had a few players making debuts in the last 20 minutes and credit to them, they put in a shift against veterans of the English Premiership.”
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