Bayonne v Dragons

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Amlin Cup Pool 3: Bayonne v Newport Gwent Dragons
Venue: Stade Jean Dauger, BayonneDate: Thursday, 10 JanuaryKick-off: 19:45 GMT
Coverage: Live on S4C, BBC Radio Wales and BBC Sport Online

Some thursday night action for you, and if like the previous fixture between these two then it will be a good spectacle. It is also on Sky Sports 1. Some changes have been forced but others are not, which has (as usual) left me questioning Darren Edwards' brain. I'm glad Stef is starting though. And it is rumoured that London Welsh are after his signing.

Newport Gwent Dragons will field a new look back-row of skipper Lewis Evans, Ieuan Jones and Jevon Groves for their Amlin Cup trip to Bayonne on Thursday.

The Dragons are without flanker Tom Brown and name fellow back-rower Toby Faletau on the bench.

Brown (ankle) and wing Tonderai Chavhanga (knee) both suffered injuries during the region's 30-11 Pro12 defeat in Connacht.

Bayonne have included Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips among their replacements.

Dragons coach Darren Edwards knows the game will be tough on his players with only a five-day turnaround since the Connacht defeat on Saturday.

"We just need to get our energy and intensity back in to the game. [It was] Game three in 10 days and it looked like that for the first 30 minutes of the game," said Edwards.

"We have certainly been given a challenging programme by giving us a Thursday night game down in the south of France.

"We have managed to have a two day break after the Connacht fixture but only one training day. So preparation is low but rest is better this week."

Other changes see Hugh Gustafson, Adam Jones and Owen Evans come into the front five who will start in the Dragons front five with Steffan Jones, Will Harries and Mike Poole named behind the scrum.

The Dragons went down 22-19 at home to Bayonne in October and are looking for a similarly committed display.

TEAMS

Bayonne: Sam Gerber; Gabriele Lovobalavu, Thibault Lacroix, Lionel Mazars (capt), Bastien Fuster; Jacques-Louis Potgieter, Guillaume Rouet; Pierre-Philippe Lafond, Anthony Etrillard, Renaud Boyoud, Rob Linde, Matt Graham, Abdellatif Boutaty, Jean Jo Marmouyet, Marc Baget-Rabarou.

Replacements: David Roumieu, Nemiah Tialata, Marc Legras, Dewald Senekal, Julien Puricelli, Mike Phillips, Manu Ahotaeiloa, Matthieu Ugalde.

Newport Gwent Dragons: Tom Prydie; Will Harries, Adam Hughes, Andy Tuilagi, Mike Poole; Steffan Jones, Jonathan Evans; Owen Evans, Hugh Gustafson, Nathan Buck, Adam Jones, Rob Sidoli, Jevon Groves, Lewis Evans (capt), Ieuan Jones.

Replacements: Sam Parry, Nathan Williams, Tim Ryan, Andrew Coombs, Toby Faletau, Wayne Evans, Ashley Smith, Jack Dixon.

Referee: Andrew Small (England)

Assistant Referee: Martin Fox (England)

Assistant Referee: Stuart Terheege (England)

Fourth Official: David Rosich (France)

TMO: Graham Hughes (England)

Citing Commissioner: John West (Ireland)

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/20948553

Well done Prydie.

Massive restart now, Dragons can't balls this up!

That is one of the best out of hand kicks i have ever seen in my life!

No chance he was getting up there, 2 Bayoone players straight on him. Shouldn't have driven his kick though!!!

This ref does not allow a player to get up, twice this has happenned.

Starting to see what all the hype is about this Lewis Evans charicter. He's had a bloody good game.

This has been one of his quiter games too, rewatch the first 20 of the O's game, he was exceptional!!!!

Very good all rounder though, but he needs to specialise to stand a chance of int rugby!!!

I think Dragons'll probably lose this. The defence has been good but they can't get back down in the Bayonne half.

And I forgot to add you might not see a worse Bayonne than this. They've played poor, especially in the backs.

Mike Phillips, it would be

Morg

You called it!! It was only a matter of time, Shanks falls off Phillips as he barges past 3 to score the winner!!

Good tackle Toby, missed.

Bayonne definitely could have had a couple yellows in this half.

1 minute down, 45 yard kick at goal for the draw, maybe 50 metres, nothing to play for can't qualify gone to touch, bravo

Never a forward pass. Awful ref!

Very poor from Smith there!

How many times have Dragons fans uttered the phrase 'we deserved more than that' this season????

Fans or commentators?

Ref and touch judge on this side were poor tonight. Well played Dragons big big improvement, hard done by..

Can't knock the determination that they showed there. Coombes must have carried the ball 7/8 times in the last two minutes there. Gutted for the Dragons.

Where was Faletau on the Phillips try? also he lost the ball in contact which lead to bayonne 2nd try, clearly he didn't make any impact and if anything it was worse.

Dragons fans shouldn't be worried to lose him, also give me Tom Brown over him any day.

VinceWLB wrote:Where was Faletau on the Phillips try? also he lost the ball in contact which lead to bayonne 2nd try, clearly he didn't make any impact and if anything it was worse.

Dragons fans shouldn't be worried to lose him, also give me Tom Brown over him any day.

agreed, it is not only me that sees his faults, at least he did not drop a high ball as he did not get one.

enjoyed the game and should have won if it was not for Phillips, shame the number 8 went off he played well and can tackle.

thebluesmancometh wrote:How many times have Dragons fans uttered the phrase 'we deserved more than that' this season????

We had next to no chance of going through to the knockout stages, but it was gutting to lose that match. I don't think anyone who watched it can doubt what heart the Dragons showed. Lewis Evans gives his absolute best every game and he must wonder when his luck's going to change.

The Beeb and the Western Fail will be talking about Mike Phillips, but Jon Evans was excellent again tonight. If any player's going to suffer due to playing for the 'wrong' region, it's him.

Very naive not to kick the penalty to tie the scores. They would have received the restart and had a far better chance to win the game as both teams would have been trying to keep the ball alive.

Ultimately Prydie hitting the post from a gimme was very costly.

"The Beeb and the Western Fail will be talking about Mike Phillips, but Jon Evans was excellent again tonight. If any player's going to suffer due to playing for the 'wrong' region, it's him."

Fair play Jonny Evans has been emence this season. Arguably the form 9 in Wales. Didn't have a good game vs the Ospreays but he's been consistently good. Still very young, surly a welsh call ahead of a number of numptys who've been called up lately is imminent.

Dragons

Very unlucky with some of the decisions tonight. Your guys need to sort out the first up tackles though.

The subs for Bayonne made the difference imo. But what a cracking scrum in the 2nd half from the Dragons. Plus some great handling at times. Bottle that and take it into the rest of the season.

Good luck.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:

thebluesmancometh wrote:How many times have Dragons fans uttered the phrase 'we deserved more than that' this season????

We had next to no chance of going through to the knockout stages, but it was gutting to lose that match. I don't think anyone who watched it can doubt what heart the Dragons showed. Lewis Evans gives his absolute best every game and he must wonder when his luck's going to change.

The Beeb and the Western Fail will be talking about Mike Phillips, but Jon Evans was excellent again tonight. If any player's going to suffer due to playing for the 'wrong' region, it's him.

LP,

Only caught last 15-20 mins agree Evans looked good from what I seen and was puzzled as to why we didn't maybe try to tie game even though it wouldn't have made a difference overall.

One thing that does gnarl me even more is that I honestly think that we can have a good run in this competition if we concentrated on it but Edwards made his position clear from the team he fielded in the first game.

Very true, Bedford. It was always going to be a tough assignment playing Wasps at Adams Park, but it would have helped if he'd selected our strongest XV. And now we've had two games against Bayonne that could have gone either way.

I'm gutted we lost, but I'm really encouraged by the heart we showed. It was good to see us keep hold of the ball and play some rugby too, instead of just hoofing it away. I thought Steffan had a good game, albeit with a few mistakes, but then he's young and hadn't played for us for a couple of months.

There needs to be a mention of that 19 year old number 8 for the Dragons who showed up well. Toby doesn't merit his welsh place at the moment and I would have no problem with Lydiate Warburton and Ryan starting there as things stand

Ruby,

Didn't see all game but I think Faletaus been finding some form of late, that said if Lydiate is fit then I think Jones should start at 8 for now.

Of course we may need him at 6

What a great effort from the boys. I now hope we can get some consistency in our performances from now until the end of the season. Since the Mogliano games we've suffered 4 straight defeats and are now certain to be the 4th placed region. We were great against the Blues and should have won but we were poor against the Ospreys and Connacht and then travel to Bayonne and nearly get a historic result.
I just hope that we can get some consistency in our performances and head into next season with some confidence. Ieaun Jones will now get a regular run, with Toby in the Welsh camp. We need to keep last nights half-backs and I'd like to see young Jack Dixon start a few games. We're out of all competitions, so there's not really anything to lose. With pressure on Edwards to get results, he may stick with the more experienced players though.
On people saying they'd have Tom Browne over Faletau...are you mad???
Just a note on last nights coverage. What were those 3 clowns doing in the studio. Great to see them praise the Dragons but what a bunch of jubblies!!!

Ruby,
Ryan Jones just isn't an 8 any more. He's not mobile enough. Can you remember just how poor he was playing at 8 before Toby came in and played his 1st cap in June 2011 and Jones never got a look-in at 8 after that. Jones' form was abysmal in2011, but I must admit he had a great 2012. He gets through a lot of work and is a real dog of a player, but I'd only have him at blindside behind Lydiate (if fit). Jones would embarrass himself playing international rugby at 8 now.
Can't believe the Faletau criticism on here. MOTM at the Nlues and carried great against the O's. He's been having another great season for the Dragons. Trouble is, he's set his standards so high.

MOG, I want to see Dixon get more game time too, but Tuilagi looks like he's undroppable (and he's done well for us this season) so that leaves outside centre, and I'd want Adam Hughes there. There's a danger that if Dixon doesn't play, he'd be tempted to leave. They were saying last night that Steffan isn't happy with the amount of game time he's had, and that a few English clubs have been enquiring about him.

I heard Steff's not happy and that London Welsh interested. I'd prefer to see Steffan Jones at 10, but again last night showed the step-up in level. He did a lot of nice things, but ultimately his poor kick led to the winning try. That was Jones' first Dragons start since his shocker at the Scarlets, but if still go with him. It can't be much fun playing behind our pack, but slowly we seem to be getting somewhere up front. Looks like we'll have a new batch of Herod to support for a few more years!!!

it was a really entertaining match. massive pity for the dragons to let the win slip away. they put out a good side and they played really well. the dragons should lookforward to picking up a few pro12 wins in what remains of the season. no way should the union devalue the dragons.

When Tovey went I like most thought Jones would be natural successor but Edwards doesn't see it that way

Read in the free Argus that Steffan Jones is thinking of leaving for England because he had fallen out of favour. Apparently he's being courted by a few sides there. I think our players are far too quick to chuck it in in Wales and go elsewhere rather than grafting to win a place here. I sort of can't blame them if the money is better, but I can't see him being first choice straight away, so he'll be swapping the bench for the bench really.

If he'd just been battling it out with Robling then that's one thing, but it must have been a real kick in the teeth for him to see Dan Evans selected ahead of him.

Dragons have two inexperienced 10s, it wasn't a bad option to try Dan Evans there, but I think he is best suited to full back for us. Him and Prydie were great together. For me Jones (along with Evans) is definitely the best 10, Robling hasn't been good enough. The halfbacks both started slowly last night but as soon as the forwards fronted up after ten minutes in they done some really good stuff.

BTW, Hallam Amos, Jack Dixon and Ieuan Jones will probably be away with the U20s over the next month.

I don't blame Darren Edwards for playing Dan Evans at ten if he thought he was the best option, but I can understand why that would have put Steffan's nose out of joint.

I'd much prefer to see Evans at full back.

I thought the back row were very good last night and a bit of a first the scrum putting pressure and turn overs. Some great handling and the half backs had very good games. Prydie had a good game but his kicking at goal is not very reliable and I would like him to run into the line as he is a big lad.

The game changed with all the subs their scrum and line out improved and the Dragons lost momentum, I had a feeling Phillips would cause problems and so it proved brushing off Evans and Faletau's feeble effort. The young 8 for me looks a very good prospect and not a show pony i.e., by doing the donkey work (unlike A Powell in his early days and Faletau).

I hope the Dragons can build on this team for the rest of this season and try to get above the Blues.

Faletau had a fling with your partner has he?

If Faletau was as good as people are saying here, Dragons would have won yesterday.

Sorry but he had a shoker and momentum switched when he came on.

Momentum shifted when Toby came on because Bayonne also chucked their big guns on. I'm loving how fans of other regions are telling Dragons fans just how poor Faletau is. Faletau is a class act. MOTM against the Blues and has had another tremendous season. What do welsh fans want at 8? That useless plodder Ryan (only runs sideways) Jones? Do me a favour and give your eyes a good wipe. Trouble is Toby has set himself such high standards.

manofgwent wrote:Momentum shifted when Toby came on because Bayonne also chucked their big guns on. I'm loving how fans of other regions are telling Dragons fans just how poor Faletau is. Faletau is a class act. MOTM against the Blues and has had another tremendous season. What do welsh fans want at 8? That useless plodder Ryan (only runs sideways) Jones? Do me a favour and give your eyes a good wipe. Trouble is Toby has set himself such high standards.

I bet most will be wanting him whenhis contract is up next year.

Even funnier how they say he was rubbish all game but was a sub!!!!!!!!!

Total rubbish being spouted on here about faletau.
Firstly he's not a show poney, he puts is a massive shift every game for the dragons. His tackle and ruck count is emence. Unless he makes two 60 yard breaks during a game people say he's been quiet.

He plays behind the worst front five in the league and is a targeted player - yet he still always makes yards.

manofgwent wrote:Momentum shifted when Toby came on because Bayonne also chucked their big guns on. I'm loving how fans of other regions are telling Dragons fans just how poor Faletau is. Faletau is a class act. MOTM against the Blues and has had another tremendous season. What do welsh fans want at 8? That useless plodder Ryan (only runs sideways) Jones? Do me a favour and give your eyes a good wipe. Trouble is Toby has set himself such high standards.

So he did not miss Phillips running straight past him, he did not lose the ball in contact that led to their try in the short time he played, MOG I suggest you open the other eye.

I seem to remember R Jones was MOTM against the Dragons, not bad for running sideways, he seems to get MOTM often for a team playing at a higher level than the Dragons. Yes Jones does play for a better pack of forwards but he does a lot of the donkey work to help make the pack what it is. I believe the Dragons will miss Lydiate but unearthed some good back row players that don't drop the high ball, spill it in the tackle or fumble the ball at the back of the scrum. Faletau's best game since the last 6N was against the Blues (and deserved MOTM) in the mud bath other than than he has been ordinary (he dropped three high balls under no pressure against the Wasps similar to the ball he dropped against the Ospreys).

I hope Faletau improves as Wales needs a dynamic 8 for the next RWC but currently on form he has no chance of the Lions

Reckon that's really harsh on Toby. I'm not one eyed at all. I'm more than happy to criticise players if they aren't performing. People forget, he's still only 22! Faletau is a class act!
On Sideways Jones. I said earlier that he had a great 2012. I'm just saying that he's not dynamic enough to be an 8. He a total dog of a player and gets through loads of work and let's hope he's not too seriously injured as we're gonna struggle without him and Lydiate.

MOG:

I was at the game today, The O's back row were really good but losing Jones with a dislocated thumb, not good, off to hospital for an Op.from what I heard from one of the sponsors.

Not looking good with so many injuries in the pack. Heard Bradley Davies needs an op too. Not what we needed. 2nd row down to the bare bones.