Surprise win for Dragons

The Dragons saw a 13-point lead slip away but held on at the death to upset Aviva Premiership high-flyers Gloucester with an 18-12 defeat in the LV= Cup on Thursday.

The Welsh side went ahead with two Matthews Jones penalties followed by an Adam Hughes try, but the Cherry and Whites came back with a penalty try and Lesley Vainikolo effort.

That brought the score from 13-0 back to 13-12, but the crucial try went the Dragons way with Robin Sowden-Taylor going over 11 minutes from the end.

Dragons then had to fight hard for the win and they held on in the dying seconds as Gloucester's pack tried in vain to push an attacking scrum over the line to grab a third try of the night.

Gloucester had hoped to make a winning start to their campaign to make it third time lucky in the competition after losing the last two consecutive LV= Cup finals.

Penalties

Fly-half Jones landed opened the scoring with a penalty after 16 minutes at Rodney Parade, and he doubled the lead soon after before Gloucester's beefy pack started to apply the pressure.

The Dragons grabbed the first try though, and it was a cracker as a turnover led to a 70 metre raid by full-back Pat Leach down the right touchline before offloading to wing Adam Hughes, who stormed over near the posts.

That forward dominance by Gloucester, whose mighty front row of Scottish prop Alasdair Dickinson, France cap Olivier Azam and former Brive tight-head Pierre Capdevielle dominated their opposite numbers, told before half-time.

After three wheeled scrums on the Dragons' line, referee James Jones decided the home team were deliberately preventing a pushover try and awarded a penalty try which fly-half Freddie Burns easily converted.

The teams faced drizzle which made handling difficult but, with all credit, they both tried to play some decent rugby in the conditions.

England wing Vainikolo went over in the right hand corner during the second half and the writing seemed to be on the wall.

But the Dragons held on to their slender one-point lead for another 20 minutes and eventually got a rolling maul try when they pushed the visiting eight back over their own line, with flanker Sowden-Taylor getting the congratulations from his team-mates.

Then came the Gloucester onslaught in injury time but the brave Welshmen would not yield and came through to hold out and win.