Dragons v Connacht Match Report
It was a group effort that took that win tonight with a special mention to Man of the Match Ashton Hewitt who crossed for two superb tries, seeing the Dragons secure the win from the strong Irish outfit.
Both teams had something to prove tonight and it was the Dragons who made their mark first through a well worked try from Ashton Hewitt. An overthrown line out ball by Connacht saw Sarel Pretorius collect and make a break through the middle. In turn he offloaded to flanker Ollie Griffiths who saw the ball work out wide through the hands of Jack Dixon, Angus O’Brien, Sam Beard who found Ashton Hewitt to see him race to the finish against Niyi Adeolokun; with Angus O’Brien adding the extras.
The Dragons stretched their lead to 10-0 thanks to a penalty kick by the young fly-half after 20 minutes.
Connacht added their first points to the score board through the boot of fly-half Jack Carty, after the Dragons gave away a silly penalty.
Soon after this Angus O’Brien added extra points to the scoreboard, thanks to a lovely drop goal. But it was cancelled out by another Jack Carty penalty. But before the half time whilst was blown the Dragons had one more chance to widen the points gap. Unfortunately, O’Brien hit the posts and referee George Clancy called for half time.
Half-Time: Newport Gwent Dragons 13-Connacht 6
Man of the Match Hewitt opened up the scoring in the second half, similarly to the first half. An attack against the opposition saw centre Sam Beard kick through the defence only for Hewitt to show his pace once again and cross in the far corner. O’Brien missed the tricky conversion but earned himself three more points thanks to another fantastic drop goal effort.
Connacht kept adding more and more pressure on the Welsh Region and after slotting over a penalty kick, they made their way over the whitewash thanks to Niyi Adeolokun. Carty made no mistake and converted the try making it 21-16 with just over 10 minutes to go.
In what was a very tense time the Dragons managed to keep Connacht at bay to secure the win for the first time in eight meetings.
Man of the Match: Ashton Hewitt
Referee: George Clancy
Attendance: 4522
