By thepedro
August 20 2012

OK, so here it goes… Having spent the whole weekend enjoy the delights of Wales I am back at work today and so taking to opportunity to try and de-crypt my scribblings from Friday night.

Please anyone else who was there add/amend so that we might finally get something that resembles what actually happened!

Arriving at the ground we were met not only with light but persistent drizzle, but also news that the LI team bus had been held up on the M4 and so kick-off had been delayed 15mins, two points I would contend had some impact on our game. Although the boys were out warming up from personal experience arriving late is never ideal for match preparations… I found Rodney parade a charming ground, although a little under-prepared (I guess they weren’t expected too many, well done travelling LI fans!), and the rather disturbing notices about no alcohol served during playing times, and none in the seconds. Fortunately one of the stewards was there when I had regained consciousness, and informed me they were now ground-sharing with the f*%!ball team and were not bothering to take the signs down between games!

So pint safely in hand and an extra 15 minutes to enjoy it, the players took to the field – the starting line-up unchanged from last week apart from the injury to Chris and the return of Losi makes me think BS has this in mind as his starting line-up in two weeks. Those who were at the Nottingham game last week might also chuckle, as I did, to know that one change was Tom Homer kicking off the game, and he kept it on the park! The greasy conditions led to some early tennis, although our fears and neck muscles were allayed when a good break from Jo Ansbro set up the platform for some phase-play. This was very encouraging, as per the start of last week V Notts: O’Leary seemed to be at each breakdown before it had formed, with quick ball and Geraghty marshalling well. The high tempo and good back-line work was only to last a few minutes, and unfortunately was not to return for the rest of the game. The Dragons, when they got their hands on the ball, were content to play territory which they did very well, kicking to the corners and pinning us back. Eventually Max was pinged about 35m from our line for not releasing the tackler, and their no.11 stepped up in front of the posts to put the Dragons ahead, 3-0 after 7 mins. From the kick-off the Dragons continued to kick to the corners and put us under pressure, which paid when their fly half made a break from our 22m line, slipping past Shane and scoring in the corner. The conversion was pushed narrowly wide, 8-0 Dragons after 11mins. Dragons then changed from kicking to the corners to towering up-and-unders, both Tom and Jon Fisher (who was impressive throughout the game) dealing well. From one Tom H clearance we conceded our second penalty through dragging down the line-out, although this was deep in their half. When the Dragons had ball in hand, it was worrying that they had success getting over the gain-line. I think we missed the physicality of Chris, with Trev surprising quiet, and Shane admirably trying to stand up to Toby F and getting a huge hit for his troubles!

Apart from discipline I was also keen to see how we stood up in scrums, although by my judgement only a couple were successfully completed – Dragons gave away a couple of free kicks for early engagement, as well as the tight-head not binding. After some questions raised about Max’s scrummaging that was a positive to take from the game. When we tried the kicking game ourselves it was often wayward, and markedly off-colour Geraghty kicking one straight to touch, and also throwing a forward pass in a promising counter-attack. Definitely a game for him to forget, and had the impact of slowing our entire back-line. With all our momentum gone, we were going backwards, and got lucky when a Dragons chip through our defensive line was knocked on over the goal line saving a try and resulting in a 5m scrum, which resulted in another penalty for us, and further up the field yet another gave Tom a shot from the tryline which he converted for 8-3 after 34mins, only for Dragons to turn-over possession in a breakdown, put pressure on again with a kick to the corner, and a penalty awarded to Dragons was converted to make the half-time score 11-3. General half time comments were the bright start was somewhat stifled by the Dragons pinning us back, their tactical kicking was very good. I suppose you could make an argument for Irish wanted to try some running rugby despite the conditions, just for some pre-season practice, but it was reminiscent of many times last year where we became victims of our own ambition, rather than realising sometimes you just have to be a little pragmatic. When we did take to kicking, it was woeful – directionless and with many mistakes. Apart from this, the defense will need to be a lot more physical and the Dragons were regularly getting over the gain line.

A raft of half-time substitutions, with Lawson replaced by Shaun Malton; Leo replaced by Aulika; Shingler on for Geraghty; Darren on for O’Leary; Gibson on for Gray. I also have Kieran Louw on for Bryn at half time but I see Dan R who did live updates says he came on slightly later… Right from the kick-off Dragons had us scrambling, defensive organisation was poor and allowed their outside centre through to score in the corner, with a successful conversion from the no.11 for 18-3. One thing that can be said for the Dragons – they can kick from hand and from the tee! Shingler put over a penalty in reply, and then another (from yet another tight-head penalty against them) to bring us back to 18-9 after 52 mins. Four minutes later and we were back in it, another Shingler penalty from their 10m line, central, to bring us up to 18-12. The Dragons were still finding touch with their kicks, and unfortunately the young Shaun Malton struggled with his line-outs throughout the second half. Added to a conspicuous knock-on he will certainly hope he gets more opportunities to showcase his talents during his trial period. The line-out also wasn’t help by Garvey hobbling off after 62mins, with Leo also returning for Max. Both Max and Matt seemed to go off for knocks, but both appeared to be cautionary as they were walking free at full time to salute supporters and shake hands etc. At this point the tennis returned, although with Dragons keeping the tactical edge. Shingler missed another long penalty after Dragons were offside, and also shanked a terrible drop-goal attempt. Many times last season I thought Shingler was excellent at 12 but seemed to lack the game management at 10, and I saw signs of this again with that drop-goal and some poor kicking decisions. Despite this, with 15min to go we seemed to come to life again, and it was really some poor ref decisions that prevented us momentum at the end. Dragons penalty count was starting to rack up, and when they dragged down our maul set up from a line-out I thought the ref would lose patience, instead he played on, as he did with a dragged down line-out. Any line-outs they didn’t infringe at, we misfired anyway, again some wayward throws Malton would like to forget. A few more substitutions, although I confess I noticed them only when they appeared in play and I thought “when did he come on?”, so in order of when I spotted them on the pitch rather than the actual time they came on: Connor Gaston for Losi, Gerrard for Trev, Worrincy for JJ. The frustrating decisions were compounded by a number of knock-ons, and despite a lot of pressure in and around their 22, they finally cleared. We had possession in our own 22 with the last play of the game, although Shingler opted to chip over the top, which we were fortunate to recover, only for him to chip again which allowed Dragons to get the ball out of play and hold on for the win.

So final score 18-12, which despite good periods at the beginning and end probably flattered us. Most worrying for me was physicality, with Dragons able to get over our gain line with ease. We played a flat, static line, contrasting the rush defence employed successfully by the Dragons, who were able to hit us in our backline and push us back – we never found an answer for this and the lateral play with no penetration will be familiar to those who suffered through the last few seasons’ mid-season slumps. The kicking was aimless and hopefully Barry E will have some time to work with the 10s before the season kicks off (especially with Sarries first up!), will be interesting to see if Humphreys can help with this. The line-out faltered in the second half, but was probably down to personnel (I hate being harsh on a youngster, especially one here on trial, but figure it’s best to report what I see..) Malton obviously has a lot more than he showed today, so let’s hope he gets another crack. Most of the scrums were stopped for penalties/free-kicks, but at least most of these went our way… Fisher looked very sharp to add to our back-line equation (which is looking very complicated) and apart from slight knocks to Max and Matt nothing in the way of injuries. Our penality count was low so that has to be another positive.

That’s pretty much all I have, like I said feel free to add/amend those who were there, and sorry I didn’t have more positives to report! It will have been a great test for the guys, especially in the conditions, so that has got to be a good thing!

Newport Gwent Dragons web site