By Joe Crocker
Playing in front of an excited Brewery Field crowd a much changed Dragons team gave a good account of themselves in the last away game of their LV= Cup campaign.
A shaky start for the Dragons saw them concede a penalty in the first minute, which Osprey number 10, Matthew Morgan, missed, and then an Osprey converted try saw the Men of Gwent down 7-0 within the first 5 minutes when Ross Jones touched down.
Despite this start the Dragons kept going and after a week of outside halves moving and rumours of other moving, Steffan Jones scored a penalty from one of many first half scrum infringements. More pressure nearly saw Will Harries score but his foot was just in touch earlier on in the move but this pressure was rewarded when Steffan Jones got his second penalty to make the score 7-6.
The Ospreys profited from a poor line out from the Dragons when some good midfield play resulted in Hanno Dirksen swan-diving over the Dragons line after 15 minutes. Matthew Morgan scored the conversion.
Pat Leach, returning from a long injury picked up a good pass and despite a high tackle scored a great try in the left hand corner to bring the Dragons deficit to 3 points and Steffan Jones brought the teams level 5 minutes later with a long range penalty kick.
Despite a succession of penalties deep in the Dragons half they managed to repel their foe and the poor scrummaging on a slippery pitch disrupted an earlier exciting and attacking first half.
HT - Ospreys 14 Dragons 14
Again the Ospreys started off the better team and despite another missed Morgan penalty soon got their beaks back in front when Eli Walker was allowed to stroll through and score in the 48th minute.
With 54 minutes on the clock Stefan Watermeyer got an Ospreys debut try but further pressure from the Dragons saw Chauncey O'Toole receive a yellow card and the Ospreys were reduced to 14 men but the visitors failed to make it count and the game drifted away from them despite an injury time try from replacement Luke Williams confidently converted by Lewis Robling.
Some pleasing performances, especially from Jevon Groves, Darren Waters and Pat Leach, gave the Dragons faithful something to talk about on the journey home.
FT: Ospreys 26 Dragons 21.
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