Newport Gwent Dragons managed to level up the scores against Glasgow Warriors at Rodney Parade with Jason Tovey’s last kick of the match.
After the game, Tovey explained the decision to go for the draw rather than the win. “We asked the ref how long was left and I did say we had time for the lineout but we thought even if we win the lineout there is no guarantee that we’ll score so we thought we might as well go for the draw and luckily enough I managed to take it.”
Despite kicking the penalty at the end, Jason was disappointed with how the team played. “We know the performance wasn’t (how we usually play) at home, we struggled from the first 5 minutes and just couldn’t get any momentum in our game but in the second half we managed to pick it up a little and we got the try. Then they had a little luck with their try and that’s the way it goes. But we got the draw and 2 points is better than nothing.”
“We’re nearly there (clicking as a team). We could’ve scored a bunch of tries out there but for little mistakes like Adam (Hughes) making a double movement, but that was very unlucky. I’m sure if we keep working on it there will be one game where we’ll take home the 5 points.”
Looking forward to the European double header against Exeter, now 3rd in the Aviva Premiership, “Exeter are a physical bunch at home, so we’ve definitely got to pick our performance up to better than it was out there tonight. Our physicality’s got to be a lot better and hopefully if we can match them in that then you never know what might happen.”
Dragons Head Coach, Darren Edwards echoed Tovey’s assessment, “At home I would expect to see a little more energy and desire to capitalise on making sure we had a win here tonight.”
“I thought the last 15 minutes we started to look good, we had good momentum and Adam (Hughes) nearly squeezed in in the corner. They then went and straight down and scored in the far corner. That was pretty tough to take. I’m not worried about Lewis, one of those things happened with him but there were 26 other errors before that. I believe these players are good players and generally that’s not part of what they do. Everybody just joined in tonight and it all mounted on us.”
“I think we should certainly have won it. I can’t remember them breaking our line, all they did was kick us back and I thought Martyn Thomas played extremely well out of defence. We were our own enemy tonight without a shadow of a doubt.”
Edwards did admit concern about the backline injuries, “I think Aled’s going to be fine, we’ve got to wait for the swelling to go down and then they’ll give us a timeframe for the injury.”
“It’s worrying though because Tonderai’s come off with a groin injury as well. It’s the curse of the backs this year, I don’t know how I’m going to break it. I’ll have to sign another 30 to make sure we have cover!”
