Dragons burned by ferocity of Reds pack power

JERSEY Reds cruised to a comfortable win over their visitors from Wales to set up a home quarter-final at the end of March.

Reds assistant coach Neil Tunnah hailed his players for racking up the victory by six tries to three and stretching their unbeaten run to six games in league and cup.

“Our forwards set up an impressive platform and it was pleasing to get 40 points on the board,” he said. “Dragons broke our line a bit too easily, but we’re delighted to qualify and earn the home draw.”

Jersey’s pack registered three first-half scores: an early penalty try as the visitors’ scrum buckled, and then two powerful mauls finished by hooker Nick Selway. An opportunist snipe from a tap-penalty saw Charlie Davies respond for Dragons, and the No.9 came within inches of repeating the feat.

Neat interplay between the back three saw Jason Worrall cross for the bonus point try soon after the resumption, while Dragons’ Taine Basham was in the sin-bin for killing the ball, deemed one penalty too many by the referee.

Roy Godfrey and Jerry Sexton added further tries for Jersey, but the visitors continued to threaten in attack and this led to tries from Basham and Connor Edwards, on the last play,.

“Considering this was a young squad who’d had two-and-a-half training sessions as a unit, it was a really committed display,” said Dragons coach James Chapron.