The Dragons were successful in their quest to beat closest rivals Cardiff Blues in preparation for the coming Guinness PRO12 season, adding to last nights win at the Singha Premiership Rugby 7s competition.
The Men of Gwent opened up the scoring after the Blues came close to crashing over with the referee deeming the ball held up. It was newcomer Sarel Pretorius who crossed the white wash, with the break coming from Rynard Landman. Tovey added the extras to put the visitors in the lead, with 10 minutes gone.
Almost immediately afterwards Blues skipper Josh Navidi hit back with a try in the corner. Rhys Patchell completed the conversion for the scores to bring the teams level.
With 20 minutes played fly-half Tovey put the Dragons back into the lead with a penalty kick, but went on to be penalised by the referee and sending Sarel Pretorius to the sin bin. The Blues made the most of the Dragons being a man down with Rhys Patchell chipping the ball in front and collecting to cross for his own converted try.
Tovey narrowed the gap in scores with a penalty kick and with just a point in it Pretorius nailed his second converted try of the afternoon on the half time whistle.
Half Time: Cardiff Blues 14 – Newport Gwent Dragons 20
The Dragons opened up the second half with another two tries, from centre Adam Warren and Charlie Davies one of which was converted.
But the Blues replied with two converted tries of their own from Macauley Cook and Rhys Williams, both converted by Gareth Davies. But it wasn’t enough to take the win as Tom Prydie kicked the final points of the afternoon through a penalty.
Final Score: Cardiff Blues 28 – Newport Gwent Dragons 35
Attendance: 3164
