COACH PLANS TO FEEL STRESS
DRAGONS head coach Dai Flanagan has vowed to “stress” the squad in the coming weeks to ensure they continue to develop following the defeat to Glasgow Warriors.
Flanagan admitted the Dragons had been the masters of their own downfall at times at Rodney Parade, but insisted the team can continue to grow and a period without games until mid-February can be beneficial.
“We’ve been in a tough 10-game block with short turnarounds,” said Flanagan.
“Physically we’ve had to get ourselves ready and mentally we haven’t stressed ourselves enough, but that excites me. Now we have a block with only two games over the next six weeks. We can really stress ourselves, put pressure on the players, and we can coach in depth and move on.”
When a side on a long winning run collides with a team that’s lost five on the bounce in the league, the services of a clairvoyant are not usually needed to predict what will happen.
The result went as most would have expected, then.
Glasgow packed too much firepower for the Dragons with backs and forwards linking sharply and the whole team playing at an intensity the Welsh side struggled to match.
Flanagan’s team kept trying but rarely looked as if they would take the spoils as they fell off important tackles and frequently ran up blind alleys. It doesn’t get any easier for the East Walians with Leinster to play next.
They made a bright start to the season under Flanagan, winning three out of their first seven United Rugby Championship fixtures and including the Ospreys and Munster among their victims.
But since then their progress has slowed. This latest setback was their sixth in a row in the league and leaves them in familiar territory at the wrong end of the table, with only perennial strugglers Zebre below them.
Rhodri Williams, Sio Tomkinson, Taine Basham and Chris Coleman ensured a bonus point with tries, while JJ Hanrahan improved all four. For Glasgow, man of the match Fraser Brown crossed twice and there was a maximum apiece for Cole Forbes, Duncan Weir, Stafford McDowall and Sebastian Cancelliere, with Weir converting five and Tom Jordan slotting a two-pointer.
Tompkinson had his moments in attack and defence and Basham and replacement Ben Fry worked hard, but the Scottish team were welldrilled and it said much at the end that they were a shade disappointed not to have put away their opponents more emphatically.
They had headed into town defending an eight-match unbeaten record in all competitions, while their hosts hadn’t won in the URC since the end of October. Optimists might have been hard to find among home fans that their team could tear up the form book, then.
Sure enough, Glasgow were on top for much of the game, leading 28-14 at the break after a lively opening half that featured six tries.
The opening score came as some spectators were still settling in their seats. Some of them might even have missed it. That was their loss.
A sweeping move featured superb contributions from Josh McKay, making deep inroads into the cover, and Sam Johnson, showing nice sleight of hand, before Forbes steamed in for the touchdown.
Six minutes later, Brown scored the first of his two tries when he rumbled over from a driving maul, with the Dragons appearing shellshocked.
Credit Flanagan’s players, though. They picked themselves up and set about repairing the damage.
A strong drive from Sean Lonsdale took them to within two metres of the line before Rhodri Williams dived over, then Tomkinson helped level matters by reading play brilliantly and snaffling a high pass from McDowall with one hand before racing 40 metres to the line.
Back came Glasgow when Brown locked on to the end of another driving maul, then Weir went over for their bonus-point try on the stroke of half-time.
The visitors were guilty of lapses themselves but they had the ability to lift their game and there were second-half tries for them through McDowall, who cut through some tissue-paper defending, and Cancelliere, who raced 90 metres after an interception.
Basham and Coleman replied, but the Scots were worthy winners.
The Dragons have a European knockout tie to look forward to.
But, once again, the league campaign is proving tough for them, with that autumn promise seeming a long time ago.