Newport Gwent Dragons v Munster, 6 December

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Newport Gwent Dragons v Munster Rugby
Sunday 6 December 2015
KO: 14:30
Parade of the Dave

Live on SC4

Referee: Gary Conway (IRFU, 18th competition game)
Assistant Referees: Leighton Hodges, Daniel Jones (both WRU)
Citing Commissioner: John Charles (WRU)
TMO: Tim Hayes (WRU)

A. Head to Head

24 Played 24
7 Wins 17
17 Losses 7
0 Draws 0
378 Points 579

B. Form

Fri 21 November 2014
Newport Gwent Dragons 12 - 38 Munster Rugby

Sat 16 May 2015
Munster Rugby 50 - 27 Newport Gwent Dragons

C. Teams

Newport Gwent Dragons

Carl Meyer; Tom Prydie, Adam Hughes, Adam Warren, Ashton Hewitt; Dorian Jones, Sarel Pretorius; Phil Price, Thomas Rhys Thomas (capt), Brok Harris, Matthew Screech, Rynard Landman, Lewis Evans, Nic Cudd, Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: Rhys Buckley, Shaun Knight, Lloyd Fairbrother, Cory Hill, Ed Jackson, Charlie Davies, Jason Tovey, Ross Wardle.

Munster Rugby

Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino; Ronan O'Mahony, David Johnston, Denis Hurley (capt), Simon Zebo; Rory Scannell, Tomas O'Leary; Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, John Ryan; Dave Foley, Mark Chisholm; Shane Buckley, Dave O'Callaghan, Robin Copeland.

Replacements: Kevin O'Byrne, James Cronin, Mario Sagario, Billy Holland, Jordan Coghlan, Cathal Sheridan, Tyler Bleyendaal, Gerhard van den Heever.

I have nothing against Rhys Thomas, but it looks like he's been brought in just because he's captain. Landman's a guaranteed starter, so he should have been appointed captain. Is Rhys Thomas better that Elliot Dee? I doubt he is. So by bringing in the captain, we're weakening the side.

I still think we need a new outside half. Neither of ours is consistent enough.

I don't think it would matter if we had Dan Carter given the game plan the coaches instil

I see your point, but neither of ours inspire confidence regardless of the gameplan.

It would be nice to still have Jonny Evans on our books - that thought springs to mind even more when I see the bench.

Cudd is nowhere near Griffiths. Cudd does jackal, but you don't see him as a link man like Ollie has been doing. Also, Cudd got needlessly yellow carded last weekend.

Knight has been Lyp's first choice tighthead and is now dropped. Dee dropped. There's no logic to this selection.

The thinking seems to be age = experience = better side.

Griffiths might be injured - I dont think hes playing for anyone else this weekend ?

munkian wrote:Griffiths might be injured - I dont think hes playing for anyone else this weekend ?

You'd think they might want to have announced that then.

That has been a gripe of mine for a while. We hardly ever get injury updates from Dragons. I think I've seen one ever (just recently). You'd think they might want to tell their ever suffering fans when their players are fit, particularly our stars like Amos and Morgan.

If it wasn't for Robin Davey seeing them in hospital, we wouldn't know a thing!

Yeah, its very poor

I'm quite surprised the coaches don't come under more public scrutiny for these inconsistent selections. I only ever see fans raising concerns. You'd think the media might be more critical like they usually would be - IMO there's some potential in that squad and it isn't being utilised.

mikey_dragon wrote:I'm quite surprised the coaches don't come under more public scrutiny for these inconsistent selections. I only ever see fans raising concerns. You'd think the media might be more critical like they usually would be - IMO there's some potential in that squad and it isn't being utilised.

KJ got a slight grilling few seasons back on one of his Scrum V appearances about why his boss was constantly swapping the No9s around (Rees and Evans at the time) but he just rolled out the usual party line etc.

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:Come on Munster, obviously.

How come Dave? Not that you can't support whoever the hell you want, obviously! Each to their own. I always support the Blues when they're playing a non-Welsh team. Kinda thought others did too. Maybe it's the 'rivalry' (lol)?!

As crazy as it seems, i'd prefer my team to be above your lot in the league.

Gotcha. All the best.

I'd like Munster to lose too though. Will never forget Tal Selley.

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:

Griff wrote:

Cardiff Dave wrote:Come on Munster, obviously.

How come Dave? Not that you can't support whoever the hell you want, obviously! Each to their own. I always support the Blues when they're playing a non-Welsh team. Kinda thought others did too. Maybe it's the 'rivalry' (lol)?!

As crazy as it seems, i'd prefer my team to be above your lot in the league.

Gotcha. All the best.

I'd like Munster to lose too though. Will never forget Tal Selley.

King Tal (I just made that up)! I remember him: signed for the Dragons and then buggered off on the 7s circuit for the rest of his stay. Cheers then. Money well spent. I assume he only signed with us to complete the 'regional circuit' in playing for all 4, us being last.

Just to add, I thought Selley was pretty good in his prime (at the Scarlets). Backs always seem to do well at the Scarlets. We need a bit of what they're drinking down at the Dragons. West Walian turbo shandies of some sort, no doubt.

the last squad injury update was on 26th November on the Dragons website - at least the second one I've seen recently but can't be bothered to look back & check. Would it not be pertinent to check these things before launching into the Dragons are Poopie mode?

dragon999 wrote:the last squad injury update was on 26th November on the Dragons website - at least the second one I've seen recently but can't be bothered to look back & check. Would it not be pertinent to check these things before launching into the Dragons are Poopie mode?

The updates are fairly infrequent, considering we play weekly. I tend to have no reason to look on the Dragons website too, so would prefer updates from their twitter feed which I've only seen one of. As an example, Taulupe is supposed to be only playing if he survives the Captain's Run on Saturday. Have the Dragons mentioned this?

Rev i'm no great fan of the current regime but come on, damned if they do,damned if they don't - don't see anyone else doing a squad injury update on twitter.
Can't comment on the Taulupe thing but hope he is fit

Robin Copeland and Tiby Faletau the best of fairly lacklustre performances in this game.

6-6 at half time.

I am enjoying this even game both teams have blown tries, I believe if the Dragons fielded this team last week they would have made a game of it. Dragons must be peed at the ref blew up for half time while on the Munster line for an njury.

Fussy reffing for the penalty kick. Dragons doing well since half time.

The Dragons were lucky but he was being blocked by O Leary and now the Dragons penalised for blocking. At least justice with the pen miss.

Munster doing a lot of blocking throughout the game.

I think we should be further ahead to be honest. Not clinical enough. We usually drop off about this time in the game whilst Munster would usually raise the intensity.

glamorganalun wrote:Munster doing a lot of blocking throughout the game.

As are Dragons.

Don t agree with all these changes for the Dragons they could lose this they were well on top.

Like this ref - takes no crapola from any of the players.

Yeah Hodges is a lot better today than he was previously (at the RDS 3-4 weeks ago).

Is that who it is? Thought the commentators said another surname?

5,571 attendance according to the speaker.

Pot Hale wrote:Is that who it is?  Thought the commentators said another surname?

Oh... I thought that when I read the programme it was Hodges.

Pot Hale wrote:Is that who it is?  Thought the commentators said another surname?

hodges is assistant. Ref is Conway.

Great try and a deserved win.

Good try by Dragons. Looks like they might win this.

Very very risky play as Zebo nearly intercepted it but good win for the Dragons.

And another penalty given away by Minster and that should be it.

Well done Dragons.

What a good second half by the Dragons, it shows what they can do with a decent platform.

Newport have looked good. Making Munster look powerful in contact but woeful with ball in hand. Impressed by how much Dragon's want to win this. Munster looked lethargic in comparison. Pretorious looks to have settled in and the 10 (Dorian Jones) have controlled this game well.

Munster have a lot of problems and this result will do nothing for their double header against Leicester coming up.

All Pro12 teams out of the European cup before Christmas?

I thought it was a strong Munster team and expected them to do well. I hope we take this win forward and win well next week, but again that depends on selection.

Ten changes from their league team though Mikey. That said, our record is pretty garbage against Munster, so I'll take that.

Pretty good gate considering. Glad we got that try, as I never felt comfortable at 12-6. Just shows what happens when we use our heads a bit better and not kick as a first result. Also, when we did kick it was effective today.

I agree Dorian was MOTM, but I will praise Phil Price, as I Poopie my pants a bit when Boris pulled out.

Cracking weekend to decide to come home, Ebbw had great win yesterday(I was very shabby until the first pint today) but not a bad first game of the season to go to at Dave at all.  Was always nervous though as we never seemed to be far enough ahead until Landman went over.

D Jones has rightly had his critics but thought he had a very good game today and our pack was incomparable from last week, thought Pretorious was too slow in first half and kept getting caught at base of the scrum but we had a very good 2nd half.

Good win Dragons and as I put on our topic a good weekend for Welsh Rugby, 2 away wins in Italy us with a BP, and 2 home wins over Irish opposition.

Not very often all 4 get good wins like that, certainly makes a nice change

Risca Rev wrote:Ten changes from their league team though Mikey. That said, our record is pretty garbage against Munster, so I'll take that.

Pretty good gate considering. Glad we got that try, as I never felt comfortable at 12-6. Just shows what happens when we use our heads a bit better and not kick as a first result. Also, when we did kick it was effective today.

I agree Dorian was MOTM, but I will praise Phil Price, as I Poopie my pants a bit when Boris pulled out.

Had guys like Botha, Ryan, Chisolm, Zebo in their lineup and a strong bench. There seems to be sense in Munsters changes, which is contrast to ours. I'm certainly enjoying the win anyway, especially after last year's two results.

And a good performance from an Irish ref in Wales.  

Perfect weekend for Welsh fans.

I cheered when Landman went over.
Better see the doc. I must be ill.

Pot Hale wrote:And a good performance from an Irish ref in Wales.  

Perfect weekend for Welsh fans.  

Define 'good'

Pot Hale wrote:And a good performance from an Irish ref in Wales.  

Perfect weekend for Welsh fans.  

How's that then?
And Wales lost in the Dubai sevens mun.

bedfordwelsh wrote:Not very often all 4 get good wins like that, certainly makes a nice change

Would've been better for my team though if the Os had lost.