Dragons vs Zebre 4th October

Dragons: 15 Daniel Evans, 14 Adam Hughes, 13 Ross Wardle, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Hallam Amos, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Toby Faletau, 7 Lewis Evans, 6 Netani Talei, 5 Andrew Coombs (c), 4 Rob Sidoli, 3 Francisco Chaparro, 2 Sam Parry, 1 Owen Evans.Replacements: 16 Hugh Gustafson, 17 Phil Price, 18 Dan Way, 19 Matthew Screech, 20 Ieuan Jones, 21 Jonathan Evans, 22 Kris Burton, 23 Will Harries.
Zebre: 15 Ruggero Trevisan, 14 Leonardo Sarto, 13 Tommaso Iannone, 12 Gonzalo Garcia, 11 Dion Berryman, 10 Luciano Orquera, 9 Brendon Leonard, 8 Samuela Vunisa, 7 Andries Van Schalkwyk, 6 Mauro Bergamasco, 5 Marco Bortolami (c), 4 George Biagi, 3 Dario Chistolini, 2 Davide Giazzon, 1 Salvatore Peugini.Replacements: 16 Tommaso D'Apice, 17 Matias Aguero, 18 Carlo Fazzari, 19 Michael Van Vuuren, 20 Filippo Cristiano, 21 Alberto Chillon, 22 David Odiete, 23 Giulio Toniolatti.
Date: Friday, October 4
Kick-off: 19:15
BSTVenue: Rodney Parade
Referee: Matteo Liperini (Italy)
Assistant referees : Simon Rees (Wales) and Gwyn Morris (Wales)
Citing Commissioner: Russell Howell (Wales)

Dragons Team to face Zebre

Daniel Evans, Adam Hughes, Ross Wardle, Jack Dixon, Hallam Amos, Jason Tovey, Richie Rees; Owen Evans, Sam Parry, Francisco Chaparro, Rob Sidoli, Andrew Coombs, Netani Talei, Lewis Evans, Toby Faletau.


Replacements

Hugh Gustafson, Phil Price, Dan Way, Matthew Screech, Ieuan Jones, Jonathan Evans, Kris Burton, Will Harries.

Zebre: Ruggero Trevisan; Leonardo Sarto, Tommaso Iannone, Gonzalo Garcia, Dion Berryman; Luciano Orquera, Brendon Leonard; Salvatore Perugini, Davide Giazzon, Dario Chistolini, George Biagi, Marco Bortolami (capt), Mauro Bergamasco, Andries van Schalkwyk, Samuela Vunisa.

Replacements: Tommaso D'Apice, Matias Aguero, Carlo Fazzari, Michael van Vuren, Filippo Cristiano, Alberto Chillon, David Odiete, Giulio Toniolatti.

I had a feeling we wouldn't see Jevon Groves after the Munster game.

I know to some a 2 win 2 loss ratio in first 4 games wouldn't be seen as a good start but for us it is, so I hope (pretty sure Lyn will make sure) our heads are in the right place and we can push on against Zebre now this weekend.

I would have started Screech but Sidolis experience will still stand us in good stead throughout the season and he's still good for 50-60 minutes or so.

Really like look of that back row with Jones to come off bench to.

Its a fairly strong squad (for us) our back row has been fairly formidable, if we can win our lineouts I'm confident we'll get the 4 points.

We haven't been scoring alot of tries at the moment though (focusing on defense) so I'm not terribly confident of a TBP especially with the poor weather.

Glad to see Adam Hughes get a start on the wing

Munkian,

Is he still not better suited at centre?

He is but our 2 lumps seem to be doing well there at the moment - especially in defense.

I'd def like to see Hughes partner one of them in the future to offer a bit of creativity but I think upping our defensive record and actually grinding out wins is more important than sexy rugby at the moment

I'd have said Hughes outside Dixon would be our ideal midfield, but Ross Wardle could be the answer there. He's looked good when he's played and judging by the Munster game when he was laying down the law, he seems to be one of the leaders in the squad. Didn't he captain Wales Universities or something?

I believe so LP, I believe so.

Number one hope (apart from 4 points) is some lineout consistency

Dixon and Wardle/Leach have been very good in attack and defence. Hughes has falling down the pecking order, mostly due to being injured. I can't see him breaking in to the 13 jersey, maybe not even the starting team on a consistent basis.

Its a good 'problem' to have. I just hope he doesn't look elsewhere if that happens, he can still peform on the wing, his Lomu style try against Wasps was the dog's danglies

It would be a shame if he does slip down the pecking order, because a couple of seasons ago people were saying he was in with a chance of a Wales call-up (and not just Dragons fans).

He was even on Scrum V - high honour for a non Turk !  

Ye Gods, an Itallian ref, we're doomed  

I don't know why Sidoli is prefered over Adam Jones, who is imo better.
Also where is Nathan Buck? i think he is by far better than Dan "backward" Way.

Rotating squad innit, giving everyone a chance

VinceWLB wrote:I don't know why Sidoli is prefered over Adam Jones, who is imo better.
Also where is Nathan Buck? i think he is by far better than Dan "backward" Way.

The coaches obviously don't think Buck is better,been sent out to bench for Keys again & needs to up his game,bit lazy i think.
Adam has been given a few games so now it's Sids turn - Screech has been a revelation but lacks a little bit of bulk right now but that will come as he matures

dragon999 wrote:
           The coaches obviously don't think Buck is better,been sent out to bench for Keys again & needs to up his game,bit lazy i think.
         Adam has been given a few games so now it's Sids turn - Screech has been a revelation but lacks a little bit of bulk right now but that will come as he matures

Yeah i have been pretty impressed by Screech, very good prospect, like Jonny Gray at Glasgow.

As for Buck, maybe the new scrum rules don't really favours him.

At least we seem to be able to rotate the squad and still be 'reasonably' confident of a win.

After the Blues' result against Zebre, I'm not even 'reasonably' confident of a win. This will be a tough match, no question.

It will be, but we SHOULD win it.

Definitely not confident of a win. Zebre will rightly look at themselves and see that they've massively improved, and look at us and see a team that finished just one place above them last season. That'll give them enough confidence to know they can come and do to us what they did to the Blues.

Deffo not expecting a win, but think we will anyway (if that makes sense).

Regardless of Zebre's improved form its a game we SHOULD win otherwise serious questions need to be asked of the squad's mentality.

I hope the Munster game hasn't had too much of an impact because that really was quite a poor performance. The only player I can think of who stood out was Talei.

Burton kicked well.

Guys,

Whilst not wanting to diminish the Zebre result against the Blues I think that was more to do with a poor or even over confident Blues side.

If we play like we have done in first 3 games then I feel we will win comfortably, we need to start like we did against the Scarlets then show the dog we did against Ulster if need be.

Is this game on the red button do we know?

I doubt it Bedford, we aren't that big a draw  

munkian,

I know but only other game on tonight is the Treviso v Connacht game so maybe then again more likely not

I don't see why it shouldn't be on the red button. They'll have cameras there anyway, so why not give the viewer the option.

This is actually a big game for us. Two wins from three, and those wins against playoff sides from last season, and we were near the top of the table; the loss to Munster without a bonus point saw us drop down and we need to make sure we don't drop further. Our next league game after tonight is against the Ospreys at the Liberty and that's not a place to go with low confidence.

I was reading that Goughie started for London irish last weekend, does anyone know if we approached him to see if he fancied one last season at Dave or couldn't we have afforded him anyway.

I think he would have been a great addition experience wise if nothing else.

There were rumours that we were after him, but that could just have been wishful thinking because he was leaving the Ospreys. I suppose experience isn't something we lack in the second row anyway!

Has anyone seen Zebre play this season? I don't know what to expect from them.

 

bedfordwelsh wrote:I was reading that Goughie started for London irish last weekend, does anyone know if we approached him to see if he fancied one last season at Dave or couldn't we have afforded him anyway.

I think he would have been a great addition experience wise if nothing else.

I heard he wanted a crack but failed a fitness test with us

The Zebre 9 is huge LP - seems rather good too, former ALL Black

We'll need to keep an eye on him, then. Problem is if we pay too much attention to him, Orquera's quite capable of making a break himself.

I'm sure Rees will niggle him at every move  

Could be a good battle then, I have always liked Rees and would like to see him get in the AI squad though there are a few rumours he upset the management so might not get a look in.

bedfordwelsh wrote:Could be a good battle then, I have always liked Rees and would like to see him get in the AI squad though there are a few rumours he upset the management so might not get a look in.

I guess a win over Zebre (away) would be a positive mark for him over Lloyd who has a home loss to Zebre to his name.

They should go for Rees, because our other options aren't great or greatly experienced. I don't believe Phillips will make selection for the next RWC.

That'll do. After the first 10 mins where Zebre were on top we pretty much dominated. We were fierce in defence and competitive on the floor and gave Zebre very little.

Tovey was very consistent and is such a different player to the one who left for the Blues. Was impressed with Hallam Amos - very physical in attack for a 19 year old. Jack Dixon at 19 in the centre was very strong too, but mainly in defence. Also, Adam Hughes playing wing, but normally a centre, seemed to tackle well above his weight, one highlight being where he smashed Bergmasco (the flanker one) back in the tackle. Faletau was immense, especially in the loose. We even score a push over scrum try, which is almost anti-Dragons - unless it's against us.

Shame we couldn't add to the score with 3 late penalties where we opted for scrums, but we couldn't keep our cool.

One criticism - we still struggle to build phases. It seems to go from first phase to either a kick or a small breakaway which ends in a turn over as we can't get numbers to the breakdown. We often crab across the pitch too if we get a few phases going, which then needs a kick to sort it out. Perhaps we need a bit of a scythe in midfield to break the line rather than hitting it. Also, we still struggle to get backline moves working at times, but there are signs that they are coming with some of the link play that Tovey was involved in today.

Final score Dragons 30-7 Zebre.

How come the fourth try eluded us? We could have done with that!

I think it was Ieuan Jones who took the quick tap and go and came up short, and then the recycled ball came to nothing. In hindsight, another scrum instead of the tap might have been better. We did get another scrum a minute or two later but it didn't work.

Youthful exuberance?!

Still a good win, felt we would win this comfortably even though its a shame the BP slipped.

I wasn't confident at all Bedford, as discussed earlier in the thread. Not that I wasn't confident in our players as such - we've definitely improved under the new management - just that I'd perceived Zebre to have improved massively. However, on last nights showing by Zebre I think my perception was wrong. Zebre created a couple of things in the first 10 minutes but wasted them. After that they were very disappointing for a team that would apparently take a lot of scalps this season. Maybe just an off game? But it puts the Blues performance into perspective if this is the quality of the team that beat them.

I think the Zebre result against the Blues was more the Blues being to cocky etc.

I fully expect Zebre away to be totally different but was glad proved right on this occasion.

I am delighted with this result to be honest. Probably should've got a BP from that position, but it doesn't matter. I think better teams than us won't have a 23 point winning margin v them this season.

Was the attendance really only a bit less than the Ulster game?

Rev, we were talking about attendance during the game. It's obviously hard to judge just by looking at the crowd, but the announcement said 5,000. That means it was less than half full. However, we could not see that it was half empty at all. Or in other words, I cannot see how they could have fitted the same crowd in again so I think they may be up to the (rumoured) tax avoidance tricks again, all allegedly! I'm in the Bisley stand, and looking across we couldn't see many empty seats at all in the Hazell. There was only a few empty seats in my block, certainly nowhere near half empty.

Same too for the Ulster game mind. Not many free seats. I'd hate to be there for a capacity game - we'll have people sitting our my laps.

I thought Ulster game was more like a 6500-7000 game and Scarlets 8500-9000 to be honest. I've heard about the figure diddling though