Russians slay the Dragons with five-try onslaught
THE Dragons slumped to a five-try defeat in Krasnodar as they lost their grip on Pool 3 with a performance that head coach Kingsley Jones called “unacceptable”.
A disappointed Jones said: “It would have been one foot into the quarterfinals had we won, but now we’ve got to go and win on the road in either Worcester or Brive. It’s not over for us, but this has made life incredibly difficult.
“They are a formidable side – they got into our 22 five times and scored on four occasions. We tried to move them around what was a narrow field, but simply weren’t good enough – it’s not acceptable, really.”
The Dragons didn’t get off to the best of starts as outside half Angus O’Brien missed a fifth minute penalty and scrum half Charlie Davies had to be replaced by recent recruit Tavis Knoyle seven minutes later. That allowed home outside half Kushnarev to push his side ahead with a penalty of his own before the Dragons struck with the first of the game’s seven tries.
Pat Howard showed off his pace and power as he burst through the home defence to score midway through the opening period and O’Brien added the extras. Gerasimov then crossed for the first of his two tries and Kushnarev’s conversion regained the lead for the home side.
Sam Beard rounded off some quick, clean phase play by the Dragons with a second try for the visitors, but O’Brien pushed his conversion wide. The Dragons’ lead was even shorter lived this time as they failed to deal with the re-start and were sent into the interval trailing 17-12 after Selskii drove over from close range for a try which Kushnarev once again improved.
Two successive penalties from O’Brien’s boot hoisted the Dragons into a 18-17 lead on the hour, but no sooner had they hit the front than they conceded a third try from a poor re-start reception. Selskii needed no second invitation to use his burrowing skills from close range and Kushnarev’s reliable boot made it 24-18.
The Dragons kept on playing all the rugby, but their adventure and lack of control cost them dearly in the end. The Russians finished with a flourish with further tries from Gerasimov and replacement Valery Morozov and two more Kushnarev conversions took his match tally to 13.