SCREECH BAGS A LAST-DAY BRACE
THE Dragons ended the Guinness PRO14 league season in style with a narrow 24-17 victory over a depleted Edinburgh at the Principality Stadium.
They followed up last week’s hard-fought 26-17 victory over Glasgow with a clinical first-half performance which saw them score three tries before Edinburgh made a spirited comeback.
They ended up in fifth place in PRO14 Conference A to rule out any chance of Heineken Cup rugby for next season.
Matthew Screech scored two of the Dragons’ tries and Jonah Holmes the other, with Sam Davies adding three conversions and a penalty.
Edinburgh, who had 27 players unavailable for selection, responded with tries from Mesu Kunavula, Charlie Shiel and
Blair Kinghorn, with Kinghorn adding a conversion.
Davies missed an opportunity to give the Dragons a secondminute lead as his 40-metre penalty attempt sailed wide.
However, it mattered little as the hosts soon scored their first try. Strong runs from Ashton
Hewitt and Holmes took the hosts into the opposition 22, from where Screech peeled off a maul to score.
Within minutes, Screech had scored a second.
From inside their own half, the Dragons produced a flowing move which culminated in Davies making a sharp break before offloading to send Screech over.
Edinburgh were struggling to cope with a fired-up Dragons and they lost lock Jamie Hodgson to a yellow card, with Davies kicking the resulting penalty for a 17-0 lead at the end of a onesided first quarter.
From their first real period of pressure, the Scots come onto the scoreboard when Kunavula crashed over from close range, but they suffered an injury setback when international fly-half Jaco van der Walt was forced to leave the field.
The Dragons scored an excellent third try when good linking between backs and forwards culminated in Davies sending out a loop pass to Holmes, who raced into the corner.
A length-of-the-field movement saw Hewitt denied by the touchline, but the Dragons still held a 24-5 interval lead.
Hewitt’s disallowed try seemed to take the impetus from Dean Ryan’s men as the third quarter was spent mostly in their half, with Edinburgh proving stubborn opponents.
The Scots earned their reward when first replacement scrumhalf Shiel quickly took a short penalty to race away and score before Kinghorn added their third try shortly afterwards.
Kinghorn converted from in front of the posts to secure a losing bonus point for his side.