| Dragons (5) 25 |
| Attempt: Reed, Seiuli, J Williams, Dyer Con: Reed Pen: Hanrahan |
| Lions (27) 30 |
| Attempt: Horn, Van der Merwe Con: Hendrikse Pen: Hendrikse 6 |
Dragons and Lions reached the final 16 of the European Problem Cup with the hosts progressing by incomes two shedding bonus factors in Ystrad Mynach.
Will Reed’s strive gave Dragons the lead earlier than scores from wings Quan Horn and Edwill van der Merwe put Lions forward.
Jordan Hendrikse’s boot kicked Lions right into a 30-5 lead earlier than tries from Aki Seiuli, Jordan Williams and Rio Dyer gave Dragons hope of a comeback.
JJ Hanrahan’s late kick made it 30-25, however Dragons couldn’t win it late on.
The groups’ knockout opponents will likely be confirmed after video games later within the day.
The match befell on the Centre for Sporting Excellence in Ystrad Mynach after the floor at Rodney Parade was deemed unfit on Saturday.
Lions and Dragons each entered the competition on eight factors in Pool B, every having gained, misplaced and drawn of their first three video games.
Reed’s strive after 10 minutes, powering via two tackled to the touch down within the nook, gave Dragons an early lead, however the momentum quickly shifted.
The Welsh aspect weren’t helped by the early departure of Ross Moriarty, who was changed after six minutes for a head harm evaluation on his fiftieth look for the area and didn’t return.
Two penalties from Hendrikse put the South African aspect forward earlier than Henco van Wyk’s pretty offload launched Horn down his wing to attain within the nook.
Lower than two minutes later Lions had their second strive, Van der Merwe displaying his tempo down the other wing to race away from Dragons defenders straight from the restart.
Regardless of lacking that conversion, Hendrikse added three extra penalties earlier than half-time as Dragons had been recurrently penalised on the breakdown.
Hendrikse took Lions’ tally as much as 30 with a penalty early within the second half earlier than Dragons welcomed again prop Leon Brown for his first sport in 9 months.
Nonetheless, it was the opposite substitute prop who received Dragons again within the sport, Seiuli crashing over from a metre out after a strong driving maul from the hosts.
Dragons had their third strive on the hour mark as full-back Jordan Williams completed off a slick routine from an attacking scrum to cut back the deficit to 2 scores.
Dyer received the Welsh area’s fourth strive of the afternoon with 14 minutes remaining, the wing scoring within the nook after extra good work from the Dragons pack within the second half.
Nonetheless, for the third time within the match the conversion was missed so Dragons remained eight factors behind their opponents.
Substitute fly-half Hanrahan kicked Dragons’ first penalty of the match with 5 minutes to play to chop Lions’ lead down to 5 factors.
However they may not win it within the closing minutes, as Lions held on to safe a house tie within the final 16, whereas the Dragons will now must journey.
Coach Dai Flanagan instructed BBC Sport Wales:
“We will not hold giving ourselves 20 factors (deficit) to chase, in addition to we performed on the finish when the trouble and the character was unbelievable, it is about how we get higher.
“We had been shedding yards in assault and defence, in all probability shedding Moriarty affected that, as a result of we have a look at Ross once we want momentum.
“Ross break up his ear extensive open, he is received stitches in his ear, I believe there was concussion since he could not return on so we’ll take care of him.
“We had been higher mentally and bodily on the highway final week (in Pau), so it’s going to be good being away (within the final 16) in the long run.”
Dragons: Jordan Williams; Rio Dyer, Steff Hughes (capt), Max Clark, Ashton Hewitt; Will Reed, Lewis Jones; Rob Evans, Bradley Roberts, Lloyd Fairbrother, Joe Davies, Ben Carter, George Nott, Taine Basham, Ross Moriarty
Replacements: Brodie Coghlan, Aki Seiuli, Leon Brown, Sean Lonsdale, Aaron Wainwright, Rhodri Williams, JJ Hanrahan, Jack Dixon
Lions: Andries Coetzee; Quan Horn, Henco van Wyk, Marius Louw (capt), Edwill van der Merwe; Jordan Hendrikse, André Warner; JP Smith, Michael van Vuuren, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Willem Alberts, Darrian Landsberg, Jaco Kriel, Emile van Heerden, Emmanuel Tshituka
Replacements: PJ Botha, Morgan Naude, Ruan Smith, Pieter Jansen van Vuren, Ruhan Straeuli, JC Pretorius, Morné van den Berg, Rynhardt Jonker.
Match officers
Referee: Adrien Marbot (France)
Assistants: Thomas Chereque & Stephane Boyer (France)
TMO: Christophe Berdos (France)