Dragons 14 Munster 24:MUNSTER COACH Tony McGahan paid tribute to the strength of his squad after they came from behind to secure victory with a strong finish at Rodney Parade on Saturday night.
McGahan was without 20 players through injury and international duty for this RaboDirect PRO12 encounter but they still had enough strength to score two late tries and secure a sixth successive win in all competitions.
“It is a real testiment to the group and to their character for what they showed in this one,” said McGahan. His side had not won on their two previous visits and looked to be in trouble when they fell behind with a man in the sin bin in the third quarter.
“It is a very diffcult place to play for every team that comes here. To get away with the result certainly puts us in a great position. The players are working extremely hard during this period and it shows.
“We left a lot out there but we knew it would take that. Certain parts of our game malfunctioned.
“We fell back on our defence this evening and the way that we defended, the way we worked really hard on the ball, certainly gave us great opportunity to withstand some spirited Dragons attack.
“If you really want to be a force in the competition and looking for a home semi-final you need to be winning on the road and certainly for us we are very pleased with this win,” said McGahan.
The contest was scrappy and while both sides were willing to run ball, the scrums were a mess with most ending in penalties. It was a mistake on their own scrum which led to Munster conceding the only try after 20 minutes when Ashley Smith went over.
That put Dragons 8-3 in front after Ian Keatley and Lewis Roblin had swapped penalties. Keatley landed two more kicks to edge Munster back in front but another effort from distance by Robling gave Dragons an 11-9 interval lead.
However, tries from Luke O’Dea and Felix Jones in the second period gave Munster the upper hand to deny dragons the losing bonus point.
DRAGONS: W Harries; T Chavhanga, A Tuilagi, A Smith, A Brew; L Robling, W Evans; N Williams, S Jones, N Buck; L Charteris, R Sidoli; J Groves, L Evans, T Brown. Replacements: J Dixon for Tuilagi, 46; D Way for Buck, 53; P Price for Williams, 55; S Parry for Jones, 77.
MUNSTER: F Jones; L O’Dea, S Tokula, L Mafi, J Murphy; I Keatley, T O’Leary; M Horan, D Fogarty, S Archer; D Foley, M O’Driscoll; Dave O’Callaghan, T O’Donnell, J Coughlan. Replacements: S Deasy for Keatley (54); M Sherry for Fogarty (54); W du Preez for Horan (54); D Hurley for Murphy (57); BJ Botha for Archer (63); B Holland for Foley (63); D Williams for O’Leary (69); P Butler for O’Donnell (76).
Referee: C Damasco (Italy).
