ACC, Pool 4 - Round 3 Chiefs v Dragons, USAP v Prato

Perpignan take on Prato at Stade Aime Giral tonight, to collect the first 5 of an almost inevitable 10 points in the double header. That leaves Exeter and Dragons to fight it out to stay in contention, with Dragons in the boxseat after their home win over USAP.

Dragons travel to Sandy Park on Sunday, boosted by the return of several players, notably Burns, Lydiate and Faletau, but with captain Ashley Smith sidelined by a hamstring injury and replaced in the centre by new sining Andy Tuilagi.

http://www.newportgwentdragons.com/newsarticle.aspx?n=19900

Newport Gwent Dragons Team
Martyn Thomas, Will Harries, Tom Riley, Andy Tuilagi, Adam Hughes, Steffan Jones, Joe Bedford, Phil Price, Lloyd Burns, Nathan Buck, Adam Jones, Rob Sidoli, Danny Lydiate, Gavin Thomas (c), Toby Faletau

Replacements
Rhys Buckley, Nathan Williams, Keiron Jenkins, Scott Morgan, Lewis Evans, Wayne Evans, Aled Brew, Jason Tovey

Chiefs have unusually opted for 4 tightheads in the squad, with Tui swapping sides to accommodate Craig Mitchell and the perennial Chris Budgen and John Andress backing up from the bench. There's another unusual selection in the back row with Richie Baxter moving from 8 to blindside (can't remember the last time he played there), Phillips coming in at 8 (he's played more at lock than 8 this season) and Ben White on the openside. Two former Dragons in the backs with Phil Dollman replacing Jason Shoemark, and regular speedster Matt Jess.

http://www.exeterchiefs.co.uk/latest-headlines?item=1155

EXETER CHIEFS TEAM TO FACE NEWPORT GWENT DRAGONS

15 Luke Arscott, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 Nic Sestaret, 12 Phil Dollman, 11 Matt Jess, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Haydn Thomas, 1 Hoani Tui, 2 Simon Alcott, 3 Craig Mitchell, 4 Tom Hayes (capt), 5 Chris Bentley, 6 Richard Baxter, 7 Ben White, 8 James Phillips

16 Neil Clark, 17 Chris Budgen, 18 John Andress, 19 Aly Muldowney, 20 Dave Ewers, 21 Pat Phibbs, 22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Josh Tatupu


Looks like Chiefs will target scrum dominance (as did USAP) with bulk in the back row to try and counter the Dragons internationals of Lydiate and Faletau. Dragons will seek to replicate the pressure they applied to Perpignan, but will probably want to use Tuilagi to get over the gainline pretty often.

Surprised to see Brew in there, was reported he had broken a bone in training. Andy Tuilagi is nowhere near match fit. I think the Dragons have run out of options due to injuries with 4 wingers out, this could be a long evening for us.

I'm expecting Exeter to tear us a new one to be honest! Sorry for the pessimism. Our away form, coupled with injuries, coupled with Exeter having a strong scrum means that we will struggle to compete.

Exeter by 15 points. I'll guess at 27-12.

Perpignan duly collected 5 points (8 tries) but conceded 20 points on the pitch. The new management may not be best pleased with the defence of their rotated team. This puts USAP level on points with Dragons and 3 points ahead of Chiefs.

All to play for.

I cannot believe Brew is fit and if he is available for selection, I'd sooner him have started than Harries or even kept Hughes at 13. We are a pretty poor team without Brewy. Interesting that Steffan Jones is kept at 10 too. I think the Chiefs will be pretty comfortable winners this week. Glad it's on SS2 (so I hear), so I can hopefully sneak a watch of it out here.

Griff,

I think if we can come away with an LBP it will be a very good result for un indeed.

Hi Bedford. Yes, an LBP would be awesome in my opinion. I hate being negative, but I guess I'm just conditioned to being disappointed so often with our away results! There's not many teams with as bad an away record as us. However, I have seen some positive signs from us this season away from home. OK, we've not won many but there's been loads that we've been leading for most of the game and then lost at the end (e.g. Connacht and Glasgow) and away to Wasps was a great win too.

Here's to a good game. If we can get some sort of parity in the scrum then we've got a chance, but I fear we'll be dominated there and will struggle to get any go forward.

C'mon you Dragons...!

As expected, our scrum is getting a tuning from Exeter from the outset.

Steffan Jones has been poor like he was in the last game.

The ref is ignoring the offside so far and Toby is also not doing very well at scrum time. Hope the Dragons get some longer studs for the second half.

Yep. But we're a pretty poor team across the park to be honest. No excuses from me: we've got no platform, no game plan by the looks of it apart from kick and chase, and have not put any pressure on Exeter at all yet in 25 mins.

These are two poor teams, there has been so little quality just kick and chase. The score board indicates one team is worse than the other.

No wonder the Dragons at at the bottom of the pro 12 complete rubbish.

Dragons look like a pub team, Bedford is the worst scrum half I've ever seen. Is there any reason why Dragons turned up to Sandy Park?

Alun, you're right. For all of their possession and domination Exeter haven't really taken advantage apart from penalties (which I guess you could argue is taking advantage). I know they're probably thinking of the win first, but with such an obvious advantage I'd expect Exeter to go for tries when awarded penalties.

Dragons are playing some of the worst rugby I've ever seen them play. The frustrating thing is that I guarantee we'll be a lot better next week. We completely implode away from home. Why?

Griff:

I agree, like the Ospreys the Dragons are a home team and very rarely turn up away from home it summed it for me when Sidoli had the ball taken off him during his pathetic charge. I expected more from the Dragons with most of their key player in the team. I don't rate the 9 and 10 they both look very poor.

Alun, I'm not sure why we've picked Bedford at 9. Wayne Evans is far better. Also, I think we're giving Steffan Jones at 10 too much game time if anything. He's a premiership player with a bit of potential, but we should be nurturing him not throwing him in when Tovey has a bad game. If we bring on Tovey we may (or may not as he's hot and cold) get some direction.

The only saving grace, and it's a minuscule glimmer of hope, is that we're only 12-0 down. If we bring on Evans, Tovey and Brew who are all first choice, and somehow conjure up a try then we're back in it. I'm not counting on it though.

Exeter are playing the conditions & haven't had to do much more than that to outplay the Dragons

Steffan Jones is terrible tonight. Get him off for Flip sake.

Looks like a bit more urgency and the change at scrum half but need Tovey ASAP.

There is only one team playing now, must get points soon, the ref has changed sides this half, three points.

glamorganalun wrote:There is only one team playing now, must get points soon, the ref has changed sides this half, three points.

Well Dragons have changed their gameplan for the better & pressure has caused pens.

I just thinking there is only one team likely to score a try then the dragons screw it up and nearly leaked a try.

Brew could make the difference but Tovey could seal a win.

Great line out work by Burns, Sidoli and Jones...

Young Farrell got a yellow for a similar shoulder charge yesterday.

Here comes Budgen!

Both sides played like they were missing a few of their players today but deserved win for Exeter. I fancy them to get a win away next week.

Dragons were appalling. But, what did Exeter do with the advantage? I didn't see anything that scared me really and don't think a Dragons home win next week is out of the question.

The Exter flyhalf reminds me of Biggar, kicks goals and that is it, S Jones was very poor, rubbish game from two rubbish teams, from a Dragons point of view better in the second half.

glamorganalun wrote:The Exter flyhalf reminds me of Biggar, kicks goals and that is it, S Jones was very poor, rubbish game from two rubbish teams, from a Dragons point of view better in the second half.

Steenson is first choice and wasn't used but Mieres did what he had to do which was enough to win & there really was no other contender for MOM.

It will be interesting what team the Chiefs put out next week.

Too many unforced errors and silly penalties by the Dragons, result was nothing but deserved for both sides.

Good grinding win for the Chiefs, which sets the pool up nicely for next week's return leg and the following games. Exe kicked much more than in previous games this season, and much of the tactical kicking was pretty good - clearly a gameplan to suit the conditions, and also to play to the strengths in the pack. Plenty of handling mistakes by both sides, probably more by Exe.

Good to see (but slightly nerve-wracking) the Dragons come back in the second half, but neither side looked particularly threatening with ball in hand.

It'll be interesting to see if Chiefs wheel out the full first team next week, but I suspect that there will be some more rotation, with important games against Oirish and Quins to come.

Although I was hopingwe would come away with a LBP I was a bit worried that we would get a bit of a hammering.

We have a top notch nack row and some exciting backs but we still struggle up front so to only lose by 12 (especially after 1st half) isn't that bad.

It is set up nicely for the home leg where hopefully a full house down at Dave will help see us through to a win and deny Chiefs a LBP.

Tovey has to start for me, Jones is a good exciting prospect but not quite there yet.

Dragons were completley out muscled in the first half and lacked any intensity.

Glad we came back in the 2nd half but it wasn't enough

Surprised we didnt lose more players to injury from Exeter boring our players to death - they only had one move but unfortunately it worked.

Did anyone else find their Argentinian fly half a little creepy - he did this slight grimace and turn of the head thing before he kicked a penalty that really gave me the fear

Munkian, yes I spotted that too! I think he was doing the Jonny Wilkonson thing: I read that Wilkinson used to image the ball was a coke can attached to a piece of string that bisected the posts. He would then follow the line of the string to aim his shot. Visualisation and sports imagery I think. The Exeter 10 seemed to be following an imaginary line to the goal, but it did make him look like he was a bit creepy!

it was really disapointing. i never thought the dragons would lose that. but fair play the chiefs, and thier flyhalf, outscored the drags and kept them under the cosh.

i am still really supprised by that result.

i thought sandypark looked like a proper rugby ground. i wish the blues had something like that. oh wait a moment, we phuk1n did!!!!! (and yes i must turn every post into a bash at the cardiff schittty schtadium)

unlucky drags.

well done chiefs

Dogtooth,

There was nothing unlucky the Dragons were krap in the first half and improved when Evans came on. Jones need to improve his tackling he was ducking out most of the time.

Dogtooth - I didn't think the Dragons would win before the game to be honest though I hoped we'd get a losing bonus point.

We are down to our 2nd choice props (our 1st choice arent great) so I always knew we'd be bullied in the scrum but I thought we would hit the breakdown a lot harder.

I think if we had the same intensity in the first half that we did in the 2nd then we could of put them under a lot more pressure. We forced a few errors on them in the 2nd - I think we surprised them to be honest.

We also should have started with Tovey and Evans.

Yeah I was hoping for LBP at most, we really need to get our front row sorted.

IF and I hope he doesn't but if Luke does go to Perp lets hope we use any funds to get some props in.

yeah, im supprised to see dragons fans saying they didnt expect the win. you know your team better than i do but i thought the dragons would be much stronger than that. tbh i expected lyds and faletau to score everytime they got the ball.

it was a good match to watch. exeter love their barrel shaped replacement prop. he was good to watch. and sandypark looked great. reminded me a bit of daveparade. i wish the blues had a nice rugby ground

dog,

The Chiefs have a strong scrum and that is and has been our weakest area for sometime.

Until we can rectify the front row we will always struggle against stronger scrummaging props.

Our away form is awful mate, our pack probably have had 1 training session together what with the international games plus we are missing first choice winger whilst other was on the bench and Harries has just come back from long term injury whilst Tuiliagi isn't match fit.

If we didnt have Toby at the back of our retreating scrum they would have ground out a few tries too.

BUT.... Dave Parade is a different kettle of fish, we've beaten some big names there plus we'll have a week to get our squad training together. I want Tovey to start and we need to put our strongest team out.

munkian,

I think we will win on weekend but I think if we can stop the Chiefs getting a LBP will be real bonus as well.

I certainly think we CAN win, I hope Chav is back to put pressure on their 10.

I'm not a fan of all these Sunday evening games - give me all weekend to dread them !

From the Beeb:

'Dragons lock Scott Morgan is likely to be out
for the season after suffering torn pectoral muscles in the defeat at
Exeter.

The region are down to two fit senior locks (Adam Jones and
Rob Sidoli), after Luke Charteris was ruled out for months with a wrist
injury.

Jevon Groves, a former Wales under 20 captain, is now likely
to get game time at lock.

Front row duo Tom Willis and Ben Castle are also long term
absentees.

Despite being hit by the Morgan blow Newport Gwent Dragons
coach Darren Edwards says it is vital that they turn the tables on
Exeter Chiefs in Sunday's Challenge Cup Pool 4 return clash.

The Welsh region lost
18-6 at Sandy Park last week in a kicking battle.

"This is a must-win game for us whether we had won last
weekend or not, we needed to win this weekend," he said.

"They played a limited game against us and it's three weeks
in a row now we've had a team that just kicks us down the field and wins
on penalties.

"We need to break that cycle and how teams are playing
against us."

Poor weather conditions did not encourage an expansive game
last week and the forecast for the coming weekend again does not bode
well.

But Edwards says that the Dragons ethos will see them try to
spread the ball when circumstances allow.

"We're a team that likes to play with tempo and this time of
year is very tough trying to generate that sort of tempo into your
game," Edwards admitted.

I'm 100% confident that you'll see a different and much better Dragons display at home on Sunday. That's not just hopeless optimism, that's personal experience born out of 8 years of supporting this region. I've never known such a Jekyll and Hyde team. Last week's display was not suprising. Maybe surprising that we didn't create anything, but not surprising that we were dominated so much away from home - that's what we do best!

The positive for me last week, if you can take a positive, is that Exeter didn't look very creative at all. Muscular up front, no end of penalties from scrum and breakdown, but not much cutting edge against a poor Dragons. When we play bad away from home teams score lots. We got humped by 50 pints in Treviso recently! The conditions could have dictated the style of play in Exeter on Sunday though I suppose. However, we were close to a losing bonus point while playing really rubbish. We didn't start a number of our first choice players for some reason (Evans at SH, Tovey at 10, Brew on the wing (although he did break a bone in his brain or something!). These 3 tend to be the axis of all we create, with our backrow provising them the ball. Did Exeter have many missing last week?

I hope we pick a first choice team this week, injuries permitting, as this competition is our only real hope of any success this season (and by that I mean reaching a 1/4 or semi, not winning the whole thing as I don't think we can!). Exeter have bigger fish to fry in terms of the league so may not put out a full strength team, which is why I'm surprised we didn't target that last week and put out our strongest team to target a win.

Griff wrote:I'm 100% confident that you'll see a different and much better Dragons display at home on Sunday. That's not just hopeless optimism, that's personal experience born out of 8 years of supporting this region. I've never known such a Jekyll and Hyde team. Last week's display was not suprising. Maybe surprising that we didn't create anything, but not surprising that we were dominated so much away from home - that's what we do best!

The positive for me last week, if you can take a positive, is that Exeter didn't look very creative at all. Muscular up front, no end of penalties from scrum and breakdown, but not much cutting edge against a poor Dragons. When we play bad away from home teams score lots. We got humped by 50 pints in Treviso recently! The conditions could have dictated the style of play in Exeter on Sunday though I suppose. However, we were close to a losing bonus point while playing really rubbish. We didn't start a number of our first choice players for some reason (Evans at SH, Tovey at 10, Brew on the wing (although he did break a bone in his brain or something!). These 3 tend to be the axis of all we create, with our backrow provising them the ball. Did Exeter have many missing last week?

I hope we pick a first choice team this week, injuries permitting, as this competition is our only real hope of any success this season (and by that I mean reaching a 1/4 or semi, not winning the whole thing as I don't think we can!). Exeter have bigger fish to fry in terms of the league so may not put out a full strength team, which is why I'm surprised we didn't target that last week and put out our strongest team to target a win.

Griff, a fair few out injured (Naqelevuki, Whitehead, Hanks, etc.) but we should probably ignore them. Not selected and would normally play = Brett Sturgess, the entire backrow, & Jason Shoemark. Think the conditions dictated the game to a large extent, altho we've never been a team to go wide of first phase ball - typically drive up thru the middle with one of the centres or a wing off his wing, several more phases with big forwards carrying thru the middle, and then look to go wide. Let's hope for dry conditions conducive to some running rugby

As, don't get me wrong the Dragons aren't exactly like the Fiji 7s team either! I think we try to play a bit of an expansive game in an attempt to keep it away from the forwards as we're a bit light weight there!

I wasn't sure about the Exeter team and who was missing, so thanks for clearing that up.

Here's to a good game. Should be a good atmosphere, although it would have been better on a Friday/Sat night as I expect the alchohol would be flowing a bit more than on a Sunday!

I predicted Exeter by 15 last time so wasn't too far off.

I'll predict Dragons by 9 this time. Score: Dragons 21 - 12 Exeter.

AsLong - Think it's forecast to be quite 'wet'...

Have to say the Exeter fans were great, very welcoming and the 2 guys I stood next to were eager to learn as much as they could about the Dragons.

Standing in the east terrace gets quite loud too!!!!!

Boo to those conditions, Standards But delighted that you enjoyed te SP experience

Griff, your predictions could be right - I'd expect us to bring back the absentees, but then rest another handful, what with two important premiership games coming up