Wasps complete woe of Covid-hit Dragons
WASPS took advantage of Dragons’ Covid-19 misfortunes to get their European campaign off to a bonus-point start in a scrappy game at Rodney Parade.
On Friday, Dragons informed ECPR that two of their tournament squad and staff had tested positive for the virus and after consultation with medical experts the match was allowed to proceed provided the Welsh region withdrew six of their players from their declared 23.
Welsh international forwards Aaron Wainwright and Leon Brown, together with speedster Ashton Hewitt, were the most notable absentees and hence Dragons’ chances of getting their first Champions Cup campaign since 2011 off to a winning start were ruined.
Dragons director of rugby Dean Ryan, said: “It was a major disruption but it’s part of the landscape as the virus is rife in this area.
“We were 100 per cent clear on Tuesday but yesterday two players had symptoms and tested positive. It was a difficult 24 hours to work through but we set out to frustrate Wasps which we did but a couple of key moments turned the game their way.”
Wasps had no rhythm to their game and they certainly didn’t deserve a bonus point. Apart from a strong scrum, they were disjointed and had to rely on a lively performance in attack from Dan Robson to reward the whole-hearted efforts of the ever-improving Alfie Barbeary, and Will Rowlands who shone in a dominant pack.
The first 18 minutes of the game were featureless as referee Roman Poite awarded a plethora of penalties and free kicks for minor infringements which prevented any flow to the game.
Wasps established early dominance up front but a number of lengthy touchfinders from Sam Davies kept them at bay before the hosts realised that spinning the ball wide would pay dividends.
An excellent threequarter move gave Zach
Kibirige the chance to hare down the right flank to threaten the line but the wing was barged into touch by a no-arms tackle from Jared Rosser, who was yellow carded.
Wasps immediately took advantage when a welltimed pass from Robson created a try for Tom Cruse but the hooker then operated an illegal clear-out for Davies to put Dragons on the scoreboard with a penalty.
Davies missed with a long range attempt before Wasps scored their second try. Lima Sopoaga collected a clearance to race away before Josh Bassett sold a dummy to give Robson an easy run-in.
After the restart, Dragons suffered a blow when Ollie Griffiths was helped off with a leg injury but this was offset when Sopoaga was sin-binned for a no-arms tackle.
Dragons capitalised when skilful passing from Nick Tompkins and Jamie Roberts created a wellworked try for Jonah Holmes.
Sopoaga returned but was replaced in the bin by Dragons’ Aaron Jarvis after the referee’s patience became exhausted with the hosts’ repeated scrum infringements.
Davies missed another penalty chance before Wasps secured victory when first Jack Willis finished off a driving maul before another slick pass from Robson sent Thomas Young over.
In a penalty ridden game, Rowlands was the final yellow card for a deliberate knock-on.