Boss Dean Ryan insisted his Dragons needed to play smarter after they edged out Toyota Cheetahs 13-10 in bizarre fashion in the Guinness PRO14.
In horrendous conditions at Rodney Parade, the game looked set to end in deadlock until a dramatic final five minutes.
Fly half Sam Davies saw an injury time penalty drop wide – only for Cheetahs to opt to run the ball from their own try line with time up.
The South Africans then infringed to give Davies another shot at goal – and he made no mistake to make it five games undefeated in all competitions on home soil for Ryan’s men.
“It was bizarre by the Cheetahs to be honest,” said. Ryan. “We talked in the changing rooms afterwards and we were pretty disappointed to be honest.
“Earlier in the season we were quite smart with how to win games. We won a couple of derby games in the last couple of minutes by being smart.
“Today the Cheetahs handed it to us by trying to be overly ambitious on a night when it wasn’t there. We’ll take the four points, but it didn’t come from us being smart.”
Reflecting on the game, Ryan was happy with the opening half but felt the second period mirrored the game on Glasgow a week earlier.
“I thought we did well for the first forty minutes because it was tough in that first half with hail and snow coming in,” he said.
“But for the second week in a row we haven’t been able to take advantage of the wind coming from behind against a side that’s got nothing to lose by playing out.
“We’ve got to look at that because that wasn’t a smart performance by us, we’ll take the four points but we won’t hide behind the fact that it wasn’t our best.
“It’s difficult because you don’t get those conditions very often,”he added. “We haven’t played for five weeks and then we get two weeks in a row of absolutely horrible conditions.
“Some of those games are just throwaway games, take your points and move on, but it did highlight today that we weren’t on one script.
“I thought Lewis Evans came on and gave us a real momentum boost just by understanding what the game needed.
“On a night like tonight we still have to be smart and that’s what we’re striving to do.
“We don’t hide from those things but we’ll take the four points if somebody wants to run it out in the last minute, we’ll take them and move on.”
Dragons are back in action on Friday evening when we face Benetton Rugby in a re-arranged Guinness PRO14 clash at Rodney Parade (kick-off 7.35pm). Please note, ALL original match tickets remain valid. To buy tickets for the fixture call 01633 674990 or click HERE
Today the Cheetahs handed it to us by trying to be overly ambitious on a night when it wasn’t there. We’ll take the four points, but it didn’t come from us being smart...
