The Dragons crashed out of the Powergen Cup after losing 32-7 to Northampton Saints. The Dragons cannot now qualify for the semi finals of the Powergen Cup competition.
The weather was like the weekend before and was atrocious with heavy rain and a strong wind, however, a number of errors such as missed tackles at crucial times and dropped balls cost The Dragons dear.
The Dragons made seven changes to the side that beat Leicester the previous week as Coach Paul Turner opted to rest players ahead of the gruelling Heineken Cup, however, when strong replacements were sent on Northampton had already inflicted the damage.
Northampton opened the scoring through a Bruce Reihana penalty and four minutes later scored a try through wing Sean Lamont. The Dragons had an opportunity to put points on the board but Gareth Wyatt missed a kick at goal. Northampton scored their second try of the evening when Jon Clarke scored under the posts to give the home side a 15-0 lead after 16 minutes.
Northampton added another penalty to go 18-0 up at half time although The Dragons were unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty try when Hal Luscombe was obstructed off the ball by Lamont who was sent to the sin bin.
The second half saw an influx of replacements for The Dragons and Gareth Cooper made his first appearance of the season, however, despite the one man advantage the Dragons could not get on the scoreboard and indeed Northampton scored despite being a man down. Mark Robinson, former All Black scrum half broke from the halfway line as he cut inside and outside the defence before going over the try line.
Reihana converted and got the Saints fourth try as he finished off a break by centre David Quinlan and converted the try to finish with a personal points tally of 17.
The Dragons did score in the seventh minute of injury time through Gareth Wyatt. Craig Warlow landed the difficult conversion from the touch line.
