No Jackman, but no problems for Dragons
DRAGONS ......................... 18 EDINBURGH ..................... 12
BERNARD Jackman was absent from Rodney Parade after being suspended by the Welsh Rugby Union for misconduct but the Dragons didn’t appear to miss their coach as they posted a moraleboosting Guinness PRO14 victory over Edinburgh.
The former Ireland hooker had been hit with a four-week stadium ban, two weeks of it suspended, after publicly slamming the performance of referee Ian Davies in the wake of the Dragons’ Welsh derby defeat at home to Cardiff Blues last month.
Jackman was in a no-win situation against Edinburgh. If Wales’s worst-performing region lost nobody would have batted an eyelid but if they won people would say it was because he wasn’t present.
Jackman may have been watching it from his Newport apartment, which is just metres from Rodney Parade.
If he’d shouted loud enough, his players may have heard him!
Since that match with the Blues which had landed Jackman in hot water with his employer the WRU, the Dragons had lost away to Glasgow Warriors, Ulster and Connacht.
Defence coach Hendre Marnitz had got the chop from Jackman after glaring holes were exposed in those losses.
They had been a feature since former Wales captain Kingsley Jones was ditched as coach of his ailing home region following the takeover of it by the governing body in the summer of 2017.
The Dragons had entered battle with Edinburgh bottom of Conference B with just two wins in it this season, the last coming on September 22 versus Italian outfit Zebre but this success enabled them to climb above Southern Kings.
They made a bright opening with full-back Jordan Williams and leftwing Hallam Amos engineering a long-range raid but Duhan van der Merwe got across to snuff out the danger.
Outside-half Jason Tovey gave the Dragons the lead against his former club with a penalty in the ninth minute. A diagonal burst from outstanding No. 8 Ollie Griffiths had put them on the front foot and centre Jarryd Sage had twice carried strongly.
Edinburgh were without 14 frontline players because of international calls and injuries.
The Dragons didn’t fare so badly, with only top prospect Aaron Wainwright, Ross Moriarty, Elliot Dee and Cory Hill of their Wales contingent missing.
They extended their lead with a sizzling try in the 24th minute. Williams put in a superb off-load to Jared Rosser and the right wing beat Edinburgh full-back Dougie Fife to score, with Tovey converting to put them 10 points in front.
Edinburgh had a series of penalties deep in the Dragons 22 with the home team being extremely fortunate to escape a yellow card for persistent infringing.
The pressure told in the final play of the first half when the Scottish outfit got a deserved try.
Dragons centre Tyler Morgan, back from Wales duty, made the mistake of racing out of the defensive line. Opposite number James Johnstone spotted the inviting gap he had left and breezed through it before putting Fife over out wide on the overlap with a long pass for an unconverted score to halve the deficit to five points.
Amos was heavily involved in the 54th-minute build-up to the Dragons getting their second try.
Tovey, Morgan and Williams then combined to put the unmarked Rosser over for his second touchdown.
Tovey missed the conversion but extended the lead to 13 points with a penalty after Edinburgh were pinged at a scrum.
Edinburgh gave themselves a chance of snatching the spoils through a try from winger Darcy Graham, which was converted by substitute Jaco van der Walt, but time ran out on them.
Jordan Williams; Jared Rosser, Tyler Morgan, Jarryd Sage, Hallam Amos; Jason Tovey, Rhodri Williams; Ryan Bevington, Richard Hibbard (capt), Lloyd Fairbrother; Rynard Landman, Lewis Evans; Harrison Keddie, Nic Cudd, Ollie Griffiths. Subs: Rhys Lawrence, Aaron Jarvis, Leon Brown, Brandon Nansen, James Benjamin, Rhodri Davies, Arwel Robson, Adam Warren.
Tries: Rosser (2). Con: Tovey. Pens: Tovey (2).
Dougie Fife; Darcy Graham, James Johnstone, Chris Dean, Duhan van der Merwe; Simon Hickey, Henry Pyrgos; Pierre Schoeman, Ross Ford, Pietro Ceccarelli; James Hodgson, Callum Hunter-Hill; Ben Toolis, Ally Miller, Luke Hamilton. Subs: David Cherry, Rory Sutherland, Murray McCallum, Callum Atkinson, Lewis Wynne, Sean Kennedy, Jaco van der Walt, Juan Pablo Socino.
Tries: Fife, Graham. Con: van der Walt.
Stuart Berry (South Africa).