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After 65 days of struggles, the Dragons have secured their first victory of 2021
By PA
The Dragons have secured their first win of 2021 with a hard-fought 31-20 victory over the Ospreys in Bridgend.
Tries from Jonah Holmes (2), Ashton Hewitt (2) and Aaron Wainwright along with six points from the boot of Sam Davies clinched a bonus-point victory for the visitors.
A brace of tries from Kieron Williams and 10 points from Stephen Myler was all the Ospreys could muster.
The Ospreys made a strong start as they applied a large amount of pressure in the Dragons 22 which forced their hosts into conceding numerous penalties.
Such a one-sided penalty count resulted in referee Craig Davies sending second-row Joe Davies to the sin bin for an early push in the lineout.
It was the visitors, against the run of play, who scored the game’s first try. The ball was spun wide to Hewitt from a strong scrum, with a powerful surge from Wainwright breaching the Ospreys defence to allow the Wales international to score, which Davies converted.
After a Myler penalty went over, The Ospreys continued to lay siege to the Dragons try line and finally got their just rewards when Williams hit a terrific line to power over the whitewash from short range with some assistance from Tiaan Thomas-Wheeler.
Myler converted and the Ospreys turned around with a slender 10-7 lead at the interval.
The Dragons started the second half strongly with a powerful break from Wainwright releasing scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou, who drew his man to put Holmes over for their second try.
But the Ospreys hit back immediately. An incisive break from Dan Evans put the hosts on the front foot before the full-back released Reuben Morgan-Williams, who put inside centre Williams over for his brace of tries.
The Ospreys held a five-point lead but the Dragons refused to give in as they started to build pressure in the home side’s 22.
A powerful driving lineout forced second-row Rhys Davies to illegally sack the lineout, leaving the referee with no choice but to award a yellow card.
The Dragons made the most of their numerical advantage with Hewitt sneaking in at the far left-hand corner.
Myler nudged the Ospreys back ahead with a regulation penalty but Dragons full-back Josh Lewis found a weak spot in their defence as he ghosted through a huge hole.
The former Bath man drew his man before putting Holmes over for his second score.
The Dragons sealed an unlikely win with Hewitt slicing through the Ospreys defence after a superb no-look pass from Rhodri Williams to run in unopposed from 40 metres out with Davies converting.
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Latest Comments
"fl's idea, if I can speak for him to speed things up, was for it to be semifinalists first, Champions Cup (any that somehow didn't make a league semi), then Challenge's semi finalists (which would most certainly have been outside their league semi's you'd think), then perhaps the quarter finalists of each in the same manner. I don't think he was suggesting whoever next performed best in Europe but didn't make those knockouts (like those round of 16 losers), I doubt that would ever happen."
That's not quite my idea.
For a 20 team champions cup I'd have 4 teams qualify from the previous years champions cup, and 4 from the previous years challenge cup. For a 16 team champions cup I'd have 3 teams qualify from the previous years champions cup, and 1 from the previous years challenge cup.
"The problem I mainly saw with his idea (much the same as you see, that league finish is a better indicator) is that you could have one of the best candidates lose in the quarters to the eventual champions, and so miss out for someone who got an easier ride, and also finished lower in the league, perhaps in their own league, and who you beat everytime."
If teams get a tough draw in the challenge cup quarters, they should have won more pool games and so got better seeding. My system is less about finding the best teams, and more about finding the teams who perform at the highest level in european competition.
Go to commentsWalter has been permanently psychologically damaged since his wife left him and moved in with a man from Sydney.
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