Ulster's away day woes go on

Dragons 22 Ulster 9:ULSTER FAILED to cure their travel sickness in Wales as Brian McLaughlin's men were left empty-handed in Newport last night.

Outhalf Paddy Jackson booted three penalties in another below-par display by the Irish province, just five days after a defeat to the Ospreys.

Dragons centre Tom Riley scored the only try of this scrappy contest in the first period, while Jason Tovey added 17 points.

Jackson, drafted in for shoulder injury victim Ian Humphreys, had put the visitors in a fifth minute lead with a close-range penalty before ill-discipline from the Ulsterman cost them dear.

They were caught offside twice on eight and 19 minutes and that allowed Tovey to nudge the hosts into a three-point advantage with routine penalties.

Tonderai Chavhanga was influential on 23 minutes as Ulster’s disciplinary misery went from bad to worse when Nevin Spence received a yellow card for a high tackle. The Dragons wasted little time in utilising their numerical advantage as Riley crossed for a try within 60 seconds of Spence’s indiscretion.

Tom Willis and Gavin Thomas made the hard yards before Tovey sent centre Riley over in the position where Spence would have been standing. Tovey converted and the home side held a 13-3 lead.

Tovey capitalised on the chance to increase the margin with a third penalty on 33 minutes before both outhalves added further three-pointers in the closing stages of the half as Ulster trailed 19-6 at the interval.

The duo added further penalties in the opening 10 minutes of the second period before Ian Whitten saw a 68th minute try disallowed following a superb covering tackle by man-of-the-match Tovey.

NEWPORT GWENT DRAGONS: M Thomas; Chavhanga, Riley, Smith; Poole, Tovey, W Evans; Williams, Willis (capt), Buck; Jones, Sidoli; L Evans, Coombs, G Thomas. Replacements: Price for Williams (52 mins), Groves for L Evans (56 mins), Bedford for W Evans, Buckley for Willis (both 62 mins), O’Driscoll for M Thomas, Waters for G Thomas (both 66 mins), Jenkins for Buck (69 mins), Jones for Smith (71 mins).

ULSTER: D’Arcy; Gilroy, Spence, Luke Marshall, Whitten; Jackson, P Marshall; Fitzpatrick, Brady, Cronin; Stevenson; Tuohy, Wannenburg, Henry (capt), Faloon. Replacements: Porter for P Marshall, Macklin for Cronin (both 47 mins), Barker for Stevenson (52 mins), Diack for Faloon (57 mins), Gaston for D’Arcy (66 mins).

Referee: N Paterson (SRU).