The Guinness PRO12 rivals will fight-it-out for a place in the Twickenham Stoop final after they both battled to quarter-final victories. The Scottish side secured a home date for the last-four by resisting a red-hot London Irish comeback in Reading. Lyn and Kingsley Jones’ Dragons overcame Cardiff Blues in a Welsh-European derby to earn their spot.
The Dragons completed a domestic double over European Rugby Champions Cup contenders Leinster Rugby on the weekend. Flanker James Benjamin led the comeback charge after coming on as a replacement with two tries to overturn a 22-8 deficit. The 25-22 triumph gives the region crucial momentum as they travel North.
The Dragons will also take heart from Edinburgh’s heavy home defeat at the hands of Munster Rugby. They were beaten 34-3, but flanker Roddy Grant has told the Dragons to beware the wounded beast.
He said: “The defeat to Munster won’t affect our confidence for this week. The weekend is going to be pretty grim after this loss. We’ll wear it quite badly I think, as you would with any loss even if it’s only by one point.
“But it’s professional sport and we can’t afford to mope around because it’s a huge game this weekend. We’ll look at things. We’ll flush it and then get on to the next one. I’ve no doubt we’ll get back on the horse and come out firing come Friday. A wounded animal is always the most dangerous.”
Dragons’ Hallam Amos, who has beaten more defenders, made more clean breaks and made the most metres in this season’s competition says his side are full of belief.
He said: “A final would be a first for the Dragons and hopefully on the back of the last few performances we can get there. It’s 80 minutes of cup rugby and anything can happen but we are confident going in. We are really looking forward to it and we are not naive about the challenge.
“It was a good win against Leinster but there are definitely parts of our game that need to improve, as there were against Cardiff Blues. But the momentum we’ve got is good, our confidence is building week on week and hopefully we can take that to Murrayfield and play some running rugby.”
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