Both Dragons skipper Lee Byrne and Wales Under 20 centre Tyler Morgan were sent to the sin-bin for offences on the home No 10 and the youngster had the last laugh when he made the most of his side’s numerical advantage with the two men off the field to ceate a second Connacht try.
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Connacht dominated the early exchanges and when wing Niyi Adeolokun offloaded to Eoin McKeon the No 8 was able to dive over for the game’s first try with 10 minutes gone on the clock.
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A penalty from Darragh Leader extended the lead to 8-0, but the Dragons hit back with a try from back row man Nic Cudd. A silly offence from Dave McSharry saw him shown a yellow card and Jason Tovey punished him even further to level the scores at 8-8.
The visitors’ mounted some real pressure before the break and thought they had taken the lead when Welsh international Andrew Coombes crossed the line, but his score was ruled out for a knock-on in the build-up.
Byrne was the first Dragons player to pick up a yellow card in the second half after taking out Carty in the air. While he was off the field, Leader knocked over his second penalty to regain the lead for the home side and then Carty put in Poolman for his crucial try with the Dragons down to 13 men after Morgan’s yellow card.
Tom Prydie tried to fire over a long range penalty, but was off target and Tovey cut the gap to five points with five minutes left to play with his second penalty. But it was too little, too late for the Welsh region, who became the first Welsh team to lose this season.
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