The Men of Gwent travelled to France in the hopes of bringing home a bonus point in order to remain at the top of the table. It was a losing bonus point the Welsh Region came out of the game with points from try scorers Elliot Dee and Carl Meyer as well as from the boot of Dorian Jones.
The match began well for Casres as after intense pressure from the French pack they crossed the whitewash with Geoffrey Palis converting the try. The Dragons had the chance to open their account just a few minutes later with a penalty kick, however Dorian Jones missed the posts. The next kick he nailed and the scores were 7-3 after 18 minutes.
Castres attacked the Dragons defence once again with Beatie scooping up the ball from the tail of the scrum, a quick pass to their scrum half saw him hand the ball over to the fly-half who converted his own try.
In quick succession Jones had another two shots at the posts which he converted comfortably, making it 14-9 at the break.
Half Time: Castres 14 – Dragons 9.
It was the second half where the Dragons found their feet, with help from Sarel Pretorius and a break from hooker Elliot Dee fullback Carl Meyer crossed the try line; with Jones converting both the try and a following penalty.
Once again Pretorius was the fuel behind the fire with the Dragons second try of the evening. He passed the ball to young gun Dee which sent him crashing over the whitewash. Dorian Jones converted which saw the Dragons take the lead for the first time in the match.
However it wasn’t meant to be as centre Thomas Combezou charged over the try line with Palis converting and adding a following penalty. The Dragons were then penalised as Dorian Jones was yellow carded, but after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing the Dragons won a penalty with a successful kick from Meyer.
Full time: Castres Olympique 32 – Newport Gwent Dragons 29
