Ulster v Dragons Match Report

The Dragons lost out to a strong Ulster outfit last night at the Kingspan Stadium, as the home side ran in eight tries to the Welsh Regions two seeing the unbeaten Irish side beat the Dragons 52-25.

The match saw senior Dragons debuts made by George Gasson, Owain Leonard, Gerard Ellis, Max Willams, Robson Blake and on loan centre Thretton Palamo after Head Coach Bernard Jackman made 13 changes to the team that beat Connacht last weekend at Rodney Parade. 

Ulster opened their account early with a try as Stuart McCloskey dove over with just 2 minutes gone. A penalty kick from fly-half Dorian Jones saw him narrow the gap to 5-3, but it didn’t stay that way for long. As Ulster’s second try saw fly-half Peter Nelson sneak through a gap in the defence to go over, with him converting.

Dorian Jones’ boot kicked another successful penalty to reduce the gap to 12-6, however a penalty try and yellow card were awarded as tighthead Lloyd Fairbrother was penalised and sent to the sin bin for pulling down the maul. 

The hosts made the most of the Dragons being a man down as two tries followed, with number 8 Nick Timoney going over as did Weihahn Herbst soon after. Both conversions were kicked to see the score at 33-6, with 30 minutes on the clock.

The Dragons responded with their own try when hooker Rhys Buckley dotted down from the driving maul and Jones converted. 

Half Time: Ulster Rugby 33 – Dragons 13

As the second half got underway, Ulster still looked hungry as they forced the Welsh Region back into dangerous territory. With Jacob Stockdale forcing on loan centre, Thretton Palamo, to lose concentration and not dot the ball down over his own line and Stockdale taking the opportunity to do so himself. 

With 50 minutes gone, another Timoney try followed this to see the gap widen to 45-13.  

The Dragons managed to get back onto the scoreboard with a neat try from on-loan scrum-half Dane Blacker, after he burst through thanks to full-back Carl Meyer’s break, and with the conversion nailed by Angus O’Brien the score stood 45-20. But Ulster piled on the pressure with replacement scrum-half David Shanahan going over from a quick tap before Dragons centre Pat Howard went over for a fantastic try, only for it to be disallowed by the TMO as he deemed a forward pass was thrown. 

However, Dragons replacement Will Talbot-Davies scored a lovely try after he ran the length of the pitch thanks to some good work after the scrum by Blacker, but they were unable to convert.

Full Time:  Ulster 52 – Dragons 25

Referee: Dan Jones