Ceri Jones was returning home to Rodney Parade the home of the new side Gwent Dragons Newport and Gwent Dragons Newport Gwent Dragons.

The side to play was:

The kick off wasn’t impressive with the ball being kicked to Quins, Jim Evans went for the ball but fumbled it into touch giving NGD a line out on our ten metre line. Thankfully Simon Miall stole the ball and Burke kicked to touch. NGD knocked on at the next line out and Quins were awarded a scrum. Although the home side charged in and were pushing before the ball came in we won the ball and Simon Keogh sent the ball left to Mel Deane who broke a couple of tackles in midfield before passing left to Josh Taumalolo coming into the line who made further yards before sending a well timed pass to Matty Moore on the left wing who ran in unopposed to score. Burke missed the kick and Quins were ahead after five minutes through a well taken try from first phase ball. 0-5, 5 mins.

Tony Diprose caught the restart and Quins were quickly awarded a penalty for coming in at the side of the ruck. Burke passed to Bell on the crash ball before passing to harder who made yards up the left wing before being tackled and then losing the ball in the ruck and Quins getting penalised for offside. NGD kicked for touch but the lineout was stolen by Diprose and a rolling maul was set up before the ball was passed back to Burke to kick to touch 45m out.

The home side were then awarded two penalties in front of the post about 35m out one for offside and one for hands in the ruck, they slotted them both to put the home side ahead. 3-5, 13 mins. 6-5,16mins.

The scrum half, Simon Keogh, made a great break over the halfway line and he was well backed up by Bell and Deane before the ball was turned over and NGD cleared to touch. Unfortunately there were two serious looking injuries in this move with both centres (Bell and Deane) being taken off, Bell looked in a lot of pain with his ankle and he was taken to hospital for an X ray. Gavin Duffy came on at centre and George Harder moved in to centre from the wing allowing Ugo Monye to come on at wing.

Quins barely got their hands on the ball for the second quarter. The Welsh side tried a drop goal which missed and we mucked up the drop out and gave the ball away – in the same manner as we did in the previous game against Castres. Quins defence held strong even when we were down to 14 men when Miall was sin binned for some reason. There were a few little digs here and there with the Dragons’ number seven getting involved in most of them, the referee didn’t seem to notice them however and just before half time he gave a penalty to NGD about 14m out which was slotted to give the home side a four point lead. 9-5 HT.

The same side came out for the second half.

Quins had a lineout on the half way line and it was thrown long to Diprose, a rolling maul was set up and the ball snapped back to Burke who put up a high ball which was just a little too long and it was marked. Their return kick didn’t quite go to touch and was taken by Taumalolo who ran back over the half way line before being tackled, NGD were penalised for not rolling away at the tackle and Burke slotted a difficult penalty from 40m out on the left touch line. 9-8, 3 mins.

Two more penalties were awarded to Quins in the next few minutes one for not releasing and the other for offside. Burke narrowly missed the first just to the left of the posts and slotted the next from about 30m. 9-11, 7 mins.

Both side were putting in long kicks for the next few minutes. A Quins line out on the half way line was thrown to Miall who set up a rolling maul and a penalty to Quins was awarded for coming in at the side. Burke’s kick was successful. 9-14, 10 mins.

At this point Ceri Jones, Laurent Gomez, Pat Sanderson and Simon Keogh were pulled off by the management to be replaced by Jon Dawson, Mike Worsley, Roy Winters and Ben Willis.

A good defensive scrum looked like it would end with Quins getting a penalty for not releasing but NGD were awarded it for going off their feet at the ruck, they slotted it from about 20m out in front of the posts. 12-14, 14mins.

The home side were caught offside after a Quins line out to Diprose and as advantage was being played Burke tried a drop goal which rebounded off the posts but he successfully kick the penalty. 12-17, 17 mins.

A period of good play from Quins followed, Diprose took the ball at a number of line outs, both Quins and Gwent ones. The Quins scrum was also giving the home side a lot of problems but the referee was having a lot of trouble getting them to set properly. Quins had a couple of fine rolling mauls from line outs one of which went a good 30 yards before being pulled down.

NGD cleared their lines with a huge kick which didn’t find touch, Ugo Monye ran back a full 50 yards before offloading to Jim Evans who charged forward a further 20 yards, the ball was recycled well and sent left to Matty Moore who took the bouncing pass well to score. Burke successfully converted it to seven points. 12-24, 32 mins. Jim Evans was pulled off and replaced by Bill Davison.

The restart was taken by Davison and a good rolling maul was set up, the ball was passed back to Burke who chipped the ball through for Moore to chase but he couldn’t take it, the ball was recycled well and another chip was put through for Monye to chase, he outsprinted the defence to get to the ball first but couldn’t pick the bobbling ball successfully. A scrum was awarded to NGD which we successfully turned.

Bill Davison then gave a penalty away at a ruck for a feisty reply to a Welsh player coming offside. They kicked to ten metres out from our line, they got the ball over our line but it was by multiple movements.

The final score remained 12-24, Quins had won on the road and had scored two tries but our line had not been breached. The line out was excellent and the scrum was looking very good too. The backs gave a pretty good display especially when you think we lost the two centres early on, but thankfully the flexibility of the new signings helped with this problem. We are still a couple of weeks away from the start of the season and the side looking better and better but there is still a fair way to go before we are ready for our first ZP game.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS