BLUES ACE LANE IS ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
ELLIOT Dee has been cleared of “acts contrary to good sportsmanship” after being cited following Dragons’ 22-17 defeat to Cardiff Blues in the Guinness PRO14 on Boxing Day.
He faced a disciplinary hearing via a live video feed to Edinburgh but the panel, which consisted of Scottish trio John Kirk, Rory Bannerman and Ian Douglas, cleared him of the charge.
It watched video clips and received reports on the 77th minute incident, as well as listening to evidence from Dee and Dragons coach Bernard Jackman.
Hooker Dee, who made his Wales debut during the autumn internationals, was cited by match commissioner John Charles after bumping into referee Andrew Brace.
Blues were in possession following a line-out and scrum-half Lloyd Williams passed to back-row forward Josh Turnbull.
Dee was lying in wait for Turnbull and ran forward to tackle him. Television footage showed the 23-year-old appearing to accidentally collide with Brace, who was stood in Dee’s line of running.
Play continued with the Blues clearing the ball to touch. Brace didn’t take any action against Dee and has made no complaint.
Nevertheless, the panel bizarrely ruled an act of foul play had been committed by Dee but said it did not merit an on-field red card, so the citing complaint wasn’t upheld. It means Dee will be free to play for the Dragons during their PRO14 clash with the Ospreys on New Year’s Eve.
Former players and rugby fans had been left bewildered by his citing.
Former Wales international Lee Jarvis was among them, saying: “Whoever is responsible for this garbage needs to be named and shamed.
“Must be some old fella in his house who is clueless about rugby and watches the game 100 times looking for anything that stands, out.”
Dragons only have South African outfit Southern Kings below them in Conference B of the PRO14 while Ospreys are bottom of Conference A. The Welsh rivals have each won just two of their 11 fixtures in the competition.
Gavin Henson, who had a shocker against the Blues, has been left out by Jackman, who has made eight changes to his starting line-up.
Youngster Arwel Robson is drafted in at outside-half while ankle injury victim, Wales star Hallam Amos, is replaced at full-back by Carl Meyer. Sam Beard, Dan Babos, Jared Rosser, Lloyd Fairbrother, Rynard Landman and Ben Roach also come in.
Despite their record this season, Dragons centre Jack Dixon was adamant: “I feel we are going in the right direction and performances are coming now – we just need to keep growing as a team and the results will follow.
“It’s straight into the Ospreys. We have to bounce back. Hopefully, we will get a better result.”
Ospreys were pipped 12-9 at neighbours and PRO12 champions Scarlets on Boxing Day after again failing to cross the whitewash. They have scored just 15 tries – the lowest in the PRO14 – in it this term.
“We are ready to go again,” declared Ospreys head coach Steve Tandy.
“There was plenty of character and effort against the Scarlets in conditions that made life difficult for both teams.
“We got ourselves into a winning position so were incredibly disappointed not to see it through, losing the way we did at the last play.
“We’ll keep working hard as a collective to put it right on the field. We know the difference back to back PRO14 wins would make. We also understand that won’t happen by chance and we have to transfer the good work in training to the matchday. TEAMS – DRAGONS: C Meyer; A Hewitt, S Beard, J Dixon, J Rosser; A Robson, D Babos; S Hobbs, E Dee, L Fairbrother, C Hill (capt), R Landman, A Wainwright, J Benjamin, B Roach. Subs: L Belcher, T Davies, N Thomas, R Blake, J Sheekey, S Pretorius, A O’Brien, J Sage. OSPREYS: D Evans; H Dirksen, K Fonotia, O Watkin, J Hassler, D Biggar, R Webb; N Smith, S Baldwin, D Arhip, B Davies, A Beard, D Lydiate (capt), O Cracknell, J Tipuric. Subs: S Otten, P James, M Fia, A W Jones, R McCusker, T Habberfield, S Davies, A Beck.