Dee’s double helps Dragons earn the maximum
THE Dragons quickly put the bitter disappointment of losing at home to Cardiff Blues last weekend behind them as they ran in eight tries in Bucharest.
With Northampton and Clermont Auvergne to come in Pool 1, head coach Bernard Jackman knew that anything less than a big bonus-point win in Romania would have been a disaster for the Welsh region.
He said: “There were elements of our defeat to the Blues that were good and we wanted to make sure we picked up the bonus-point in Bucharest because realistically we need the full ten points against Timisoara if we are to stand any chance of going through.
“It would be a hell of an achievement if we could qualify from our pool. What this win will do is put us in the right mood for the visit of Northampton in round two.”
There were four tries in each half for the visitors and acting skipper Elliot Dee picked up the man of the match award for his two tries at the back of driving lineout mauls in the opening 40 minutes.
To their credit, the Saracens twice took the lead in the opening quarter, a Luke Samoa penalty opening the scoring and then an interception score from centre Jack Umaga making it 8-7 after Dee’s first rumble – but by the end the possession stats were 80-20 in favour of the visitors.
A trademark 20m burst by No.8 Ross Moriarty paved the way for Wales prop Leon Brown to burrow over and Dee’s second lineout trundle was followed a minute later by the try of the game from wing Dafydd Howells,
made by a brilliant break out of his 22 by Tyler Morgan.
Having reached the break 26-10 ahead the Dragons didn’t take their foot off the gas in the second half as they piled on the pressure and the points.
Lock Lewis Evans converted mounting pressure into a fifth try from close range before a floated pass allowed replacement centre Marius Simionescu to snap up an interception try.
The home side then lost Valentin Poparlan to the sin-bin in the 67th minute for another breakdown offence and a minute later French referee Pierre Brousset lost patience and awarded a penalty try for repeated offside.
Griffiths then drove over for try No.7 before replacement scrum-half Rhodri Davies completed the rout with the final move of the match. Outside-half Josh Lewis knocked over his sixth conversion to complete the scoring.