The team, which saw a mixture of Academy players and senior players come up against the English outfit, suffered a 41-7 defeat despite a competitive first half.
It was Juan Pablo Estelles who opened the scoring for the Saints with a second try from Reece Marshall on the 40-minute marker, seeing a lead of 12-0 at the break.
Our hosts increased the score through a penalty kick, in the second half which was quickly followed by a try from Ken Pisi. The Dragons hit back through a try from Joe Thomas thanks to a neat grubber kick from Arwel Robson. However, it wasn’t meant to be for the Dragons, as Saints went over three more times following this effort from the Dragons, seeing a full time score of 41-7.
“It was a very spirited effort by our boys,” said Marnitz. “We are a young team and came up against a close to full strength Northampton, now they know that against the best teams in the business you cannot afford to switch off and have soft moments.
“Take away a couple of gifts tries – an interception, one after we had just stolen a lineout and gave it immediately back – and we were very good. Our big focus is to learn and stop giving away gifts because teams at this level usually turn them into seven points.”
He continued; “I would say 41-7 was not a true reflection of the game but unfortunately with youth comes little mistakes that a good team like Northampton will hurt you from. But there were loads of positives and it was a massive improvement from Munster, plus a load of our younger players now know what it’s like to play at a higher level against a quality outfit.”
Looking forward to the match against Scarlets, Marnitz commented; “We need to kick on against the Scarlets and take some momentum into the PRO14 – it’s nice to finally play at home, it’s felt like we are a team that only plays on the road!
“We asked the players to step up from Munster against Northampton and they did by really getting stuck into them. Now the youngsters need to grow from that performance.”
The Dragons return to Rodney Parade this weekend to take on Scarlets in the Anglo-Welsh Cup. All Seasonal Members are reminded that their seasonal passes are valid for this match, however if supporters do not have passes then ticket prices start from just £10, these are available by clicking here.
