The Dragons moved off the foot of the table and condemned Ulster to the basement spot in the Magners League clash at Rodney Parade on Saturday. The home side resisted setting a new home record and bounced back from defeat to Munster with a convincing 31-11 win against Ulster.
Tries by wing Gareth Wyatt, centre Rhodri Gomer Davies and lock Luke Charteris led Paul Turner’s men back to winning ways in the Magners League and ensured they didn’t set a new record of four successive home defeats.
The Dragons were always in control and dominated both possession and field territory to beat the Irishmen for the first time in five attempts.
Dragons Coach Turner welcomed back Wales Rugby World Cup squad members Kevin Morgan, Ceri Sweeney and Michael Owen after their pool stage defeat to Fiji in Nantes. But newly appointed captain Colin Charvis missed the clash with a niggling injury. Turner installed Morgan as skipper and made four changes with centre Gareth Maule and a new half back combination of Sweeney and scrum half Wayne Evans coming in.
Sweeney and Morgan began the match with a point to prove and looked particularly hungry and eager to put themselves in the frame for caretaker coach Nigel Davies’s selection for the international against South Africa next month.
But it was Dragons lock Luke Charteris who set the tone by winning the first line-out of the match and in the ensuing phase of play Ulster were caught offside. The Dragons capitalised and took the lead after four minutes when Sweeney slotted over the resulting penalty from in front of the posts.
And just two minutes later, the hosts scored their first try when a slick move involving Evans, Sweeney and Gomer Davies found Morgan who made the line break and fed wing Gareth Wyatt who beat the despairing dive of Tommy Bowe to race into the right corner.
Ulster hit back through Niall O’Connor’s penalty on 17 minutes but the Dragons maintained their early pressure and Sweeney showed his craft and invention with a delightful chip through the Irish defence. Fortunately for the visitors, wing Mark McCrea was on hand to sweep up.
But the Dragons continued to attack from deep although it nearly cost them dear on the half hour when Sweeney’s pass was intercepted by Bowe. The Irish international offloaded to Cave and the young centre must have thought he was clear to score under the posts only for No.8 Joe Bearman’s last-ditch ankle tap saved the day.
Ulster were reduced to 14 men after 32 minutes when flanker Matt McCullough was yellow carded for coming in at the side and Sweeney added the penalty. The Dragons should have capitalised further with the man advantage and looked to be turning the screw on the Ulster defence before Evans spilt the ball with the try line at his mercy.
Coach Turner would have been highly satisfied with his side’s first half performance and the half finished on a perfect note when referee Clancy gave Sweeney another opportunity to extend the lead with a penalty on the stroke of half time.
The Dragons fly half made no mistake and his cool strike from the left touchline allowed the hosts an 11-point advantage at the break. O’Connor scored an early second half penalty for Ulster to reduce the deficit to eight points.
But Ulster’s ill-disciplined diminished their chances of staging a fightback when they lost a man for the second time in the match when David Pollock was sin-binned after 54 minutes.
The Dragons felt they had finished the contest when Gomer Davies pounced after a deflected Marshall stab kick fell to Dragons hooker Steve Jones whose pass allowed Davies to score. Sweeney added his first conversion.
However, Ulster refused to give up and scored within a minute through replacement Tom Court but it was too little too late as that man Charteris sealed the victory with a try in the final minute.
