Jet-heeled Jordan fires reminder to Pivac

FULL-BACK Jordan Williams gave a nudge to Welsh national coach, Wayne Pivac, with a polished performance which saw him score two tries and make another.

His efforts were the difference between the sides as Dragons made heavy weather of beating the perennial PRO14 strugglers in a game they had to win to gain credibility after suffering heavy defeats in three of their last four matches.

Williams had been absent with ruptured knee ligaments for much of last season so it came as no surprise that he has been omitted from the national squad, but this impressive display was a timely reminder of his talent.

Dragons boss, Dean Ryan, said: “Jordan has had two games in a year but he looked really sharp and his strength is bringing other people into the game.

“Still, we are dragging ourselves down as we were in total control and expecting to surge away when sloppy errors made it a 14-point turnaround just before half-time.

“This made the second half edgy and everybody became more cautious. Now is the time for us to raise the bar and not just be content with picking up a win here and there.”

Williams, below, played a major hand in Dragons’ opening tries. First an excellent touch-finder from Sam Davies and a drive from Jamie Roberts gave Williams the chance to round his opposite number and score.

The hosts then produced their best move of the match with Williams running 50m to set up a try for Roberts, who was rewarded for a wholehearted performance on his home debut.

Ryan said: “Jamie was back to near his best tonight. He was very difficult to bring down and marshalled our defence superbly. It was a pity there wasn’t a crowd in to watch him.”

Carlo Canna kicked a penalty for Zebre but they suffered two blows in quick succession with Elliot Dee finishing off a lineout drive before wing, Mattia Bellini, was sin-binned for persistent team infringements.

Dragons looked set to pick up a bonus point before half-time but inexplicably Dee tried a chip through when only 10m out which allowed the visitors to break away and Federico Mori finished off a kick and chase to score.

Canna converted and kicked a penalty but before Bellini could return, Dragons scored their fourth try when a pass from Roberts sent Williams over.

Davies again missed the conversion but kicked two penalties to take him past 1,000 points in his professional career before Giulio Bisegni scored a late try for the spirited Italians.