| Pro14: Dragons v Cheetahs |
|---|
| Dragons (0) 13 |
| Tries: Rosser Cons: Davies Pens: Davies 2 |
| Cheetahs (10) 10 |
| Tries: Pokomela Cons: Schoeman Pens: Schoeman |
Dragons battled back to grab a dramatic 13-10 Pro14 win over Cheetahs after trailing 10-0 at the break.
Wales squad candidate Sam Davies landed the winning penalty after 85 minutes. Jared Rosser scored their only try while Davies kicked eight points.
Junior Pokomela scored an early Cheetahs try with Tian Schoeman landing a conversion and penalty.
The clock had passed 80 minutes when Davies missed a long-range attempt only to succeed with the game’s last kick.
It provided a memorable finale to a largely forgettable game in muddy conditions, with Wales squad flanker Taine Basham man of the match.
Davies’ winner also came on the day fly-half Dan Biggar suffered a knee injury that will concern Wales ahead of their Six Nations encounter against England at Twickenham on Saturday.
Cheetahs, who had lost to Leinster and Ulster on their current trip to Europe, were hit by the late withdrawal of experienced scrum-half Ruan Pienaar, his deputy Tian Meyer taking over the captaincy as well as the number nine shirt.
The visitors showed attacking intent despite the gluepot surface and hail showers, although the opening score after nine minutes came from a Dragons error as flanker Pokomela dived over from close range after Jack Dixon’s poor clearance was charged down.
Schoeman’s conversion and penalty put Cheetahs 10 points up before a scoreless second quarter left the crowd frustrated, especially since most of the frequent penalties handed out by referee Andrew Brace were going in the visitors’ favour.
Davies chipped over a simple penalty 90 seconds after the break, but then failed to get the distance with a 40-metre attempt out of the mud.
Dragons got back on terms after 56 minutes when Basham made a searing break and Dixon made up for his earlier error with a canny grubber kick for Rosser to pounce, Davies levelling the scores.
Cheetahs bizarrely turned down a short-range penalty chance with 11 minutes left in favour of a kick to the corner, which failed to pay dividends.
They were again left ruing their adventure as they ran the ball out of defence in the 84th minute, only for Tavis Knoyle to pull off an interception which set up Davies’ unlikely winner.
Dragons director of rugby Dean Ryan told BBC Sport Wales:
“It was bizarre by Cheetahs. We won a couple of derby games in the last minute by being smart. Today Cheetahs handed it to us by being overly ambitious, but we’ll take the four points.”
“Taine Basham is coming backwards and forwards from his first international camp; it’s an emotional roller-coaster, so to get performances like that from a young man is incredibly impressive and he was head and shoulders above everyone else.
“It’s been difficult for Sam [Davies] because the last two weeks [conditions] have not been a place for a 10 to play some rugby. He won’t be selected (for Wales) or not selected on the last two weeks. It’s just been a case of steering your side round and Sam did that better than most.”
Dragons: Talbot-Davies; Rosser, Warren, Dixon, Hewitt; S Davies, R Williams (capt); Jarvis, Shipp, Fairbrother, J Davies, Screech, Keddie, Basham, Griffiths.
Replacements: Lawrence, Reynolds, Coleman, Nansen, Evans, Knoyle, Botica, Goodchild.
Cheetahs: Blommetjies; Smith, Small-Smith, Ven Rensburg, Barry; Schoeman, Meyer (capt); Venter, Arnoldi, De Bruin, Manjezi, Steenkamp, Olivier, Pokomela, Davis
Replacements: Dweba, Marais, Coetzee, JP du Preez, Koen, Maxwane, Fouche, Smit.
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU)
Assistants: Adam Jones (WRU) & Stuart Gaffikin (IRFU)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (IRFU)
Article courtesy of BBC Sport
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