Newport Gwent Dragons v Glasgow Warriors, 20 September

                                  
Newport Gwent Dragons v Glasgow Warriors
Saturday 20 September 2014, KO 14:40
Rodney Parade, Newport
Live on Sky Sports 1HD

Referee: David Wilkinson (Ireland)
Assistant Referees: Neil Hennessy (Wales), Dan Jones (Wales)
TMO: Tim Hayes (Wales)

A. Teams:

I. Newport Gwent Dragons

15. Hallam Amos
14. Tom Prydie
13. Ben John
12. Dorian Jones
11. Aled Brew
10. Angus O'Brien
9. Richie Rees

8. Taulupe Faletau
7. Nic Cudd
6. Lewis Evans
5. Rynard Landman (Captain)
4. Cory Hill
3. Lloyd Fairbrother
2. T. Rhys Thomas
1. Boris Stankovich

16. Elliot Dee
17. Hugh Gustafson
18. Dan Way
19. Matthew Screech
20. Andy Powell
21. Luc Jones
22. Ashton Hewitt
23. Barney Nightingale

II. Glasgow Warriors

15. Stuart Hogg
14. Tommy Seymour
13. Alex Dunbar
12. Peter Horne
11. DTH van der Merwe
10. Duncan Weir
9. Niko Matawalu

1. Gordon Reid
2. Kevin Bryce
3. Euan Murray  
4. Tim Swinson
5. Leone Nakarawa
6. Rob Harley
7. Tyrone Holmes
8. Josh Strauss (Captain)

16. Fraser Brown
17. Alex Allan
18. Rossouw de Klerk
19. James Eddie  
20. Chris Fusaro
21. Adam Ashe
22. Henry Pyrgos
23. Lee Jones

B. Form Guide:
Glasgow
Glasgow Warriors 22-20 Leinster
Cardiff Blues 12-33 Glasgow Warriors

Cardiff
Connacht 16-11 Newport Gwent Dragons
Newport Gwent Dragons 15-17 Ospreys

C. Previous Results:
Friday 7 October 2011,            Firhill Stadium
Glasgow Warriors  24 – 19  Newport Gwent Dragons
 
Sunday 4 December 2011,            Rodney Parade
Newport Gwent Dragons  14 – 14  Glasgow Warriors
 
Friday 2 November 2012,            Scotstoun Stadium
Glasgow Warriors  37 – 6  Newport Gwent Dragons           
 
Friday 15 February 2013,            Rodney Parade
Newport Gwent Dragons  3 – 60  Glasgow Warriors           
 
Friday 22 November 2013,            Scotstoun Stadium
Glasgow Warriors  8 – 23  Newport Gwent Dragons
 
Sunday 23 February 2014,            Rodney Parade
Newport Gwent Dragons  24 – 23  Glasgow Warriors

A real banana skin this one, and Toonie has of course shuffled the his pack again, but it's a strong side on paper. Pleased to see DTH starting once more and the two Fijians ought to keep things interesting. Important game for Duncan Weir. The Scotland 10 jersey is wide open and he needs to start grasping opportunities.

Wow...wondered if i had missed this thread to Ian for setting up - the rest of us were too busy scaremongering/intimidating each other And well done on the pictures. Had no idea Jodie Foster was Welsh.

Very pacey/agressive/mental set of backs - hope Meatball is able to get them going

That is a turbocharged set of backs for Glasgow - hope it's dry weather!

This will be an easy win for Glasgow sadly (for me). We are so weak at centre, with Ben John signed today from the Ospreys as emergency cover and a Premiership flyhalf at 12. With Angus at 10 too, they're inevitably going to get a lot of joy down that channel. We aren't going to be able to execute any backs moves I suspect (though some would say we don't anyway).

Our best hope is to get parity in the scrums and hope our forwards can go okay, but I don't see us causing Glasgow any problems. On the plus side, we are hosting a beer/cider festival, so that will provide us Hazell Terrace faithful with some comfort

After we took our eye off Rhys Webb for a soft try last week, surely we'll know better than to switch off when Matawalu has the ball. He's such a great player to watch but I'll be happy if I don't have a reason to applaud him today. Plus I think it's disgraceful Glasgow have brought Hogg back for this. He should have been rested for another week. Terrible player management...

My hope is that our blitz defence keeps Glasgow out and that our pack gets on top and we kick our penalties. I can't see us scoring tries, not in the backs anyway. The trouble is that the unfamiliarity in midfield it likely to be a weakness in defence as well as in attack and Alex Dunbar was excellent against the Blues.

On the plus side, we've got two great young players on the bench, Ashton Hewitt and Barney Nightingale. If they get on, they could do some damage, they're both quite fearless.

Dorian Jones???? sorry but nepotism should not exist at pro rugby. The kid is not up to regional standard and to play him in the centre is just nuts. Where is ashley smith after being told he was fit to play? They are going to have a field day down that channel. Feel sorry for the pack, they are going to have to put in a huge shift to protect the midfield.

I fear the worst

Could be a long afternoon today I am afraid, Glasgow are looking good at the moment. If we are struggling at centre play Powell at 8 and Faletau in the centre

Risca Rev wrote:This will be an easy win for Glasgow sadly (for me). We are so weak at centre, with Ben John signed today from the Ospreys as emergency cover and a Premiership flyhalf at 12. With Angus at 10 too, they're inevitably going to get a lot of joy down that channel. We aren't going to be able to execute any backs moves I suspect (though some would say we don't anyway).

Our best hope is to get parity in the scrums and hope our forwards can go okay, but I don't see us causing Glasgow any problems. On the plus side, we are hosting a beer/cider festival, so that will provide us Hazell Terrace faithful with some comfort

Agree with you.

RE your last paragraph: I'm really tempted to make my way down now! Might have to sack off the gym today.

Matawalo starting for Glasgow :-) I love watching him play. What will he do this week? Is it the sublime dummy and offload for a try or is it running a penalty, knocking it on and costing you the game? His skills are fantastic and he turned the game last week. Even his team mates have little idea what he is going to do :-)

What do you think of him Dragons fans?

He's fantastic, TJ. I'd kill to have him at the Dragons. Yes he's erratic, but give me a player like that with a potential for genius than a steady Eddie who might not lose you a match but sure as hell won't win you one either.

Hmmm..quite a gloomy view from Dragons fans. I hope Glasgow are not too confident -still a tough place to go.
Looking forward to this and really hope the Weege can keep the heid for the full 80 minutes.

Good score by Dunbar already. He's on good firm this season so far!

Bryce looks up for it as well.

Did not look much wrong with that line out, not a penalty!

Immense from Strauss - i felt that hand off from here.

Glasgow are looking irresistible at times, Dragons doing very well just to hang in there at the moment, they could really get blown away if they are not careful

Got to love the crowd at RP. They are passionate and know their rugby, the officials won't get away with anything from them.

That was late!!!

Ummmm.... LATE?!


Christ on a bendy-bus.

It was

Loving the Pro12 this season. High tempo, very little tactical kicking. Yes it might turn when the weather turns but this long, indian summer is brilliant for rugby.

Lucky boy, that should be 10 mins in the bin, which would probably mean game over

Could be a big moment in the game should have been a yellow card and a penalty try.

I think Dragons are being unfairly penalised time after time at scrum time.

Pretty dissapointed that we only have one try

cakeordeath wrote:Pretty dissapointed that we only have one try

Ref cost us one but our line out hasn't functioned well. Big first 10 coming up, think if we get the next score we can take control.

Just can't seem to get Hogg into the game.

That card was coming, Glasgow need to kill them off at the start of the second. Dragons have been putting the bodies on the line but are surely going to run out of steam. Murray still has got it at TH, should bode well for the Scotland team as well.

Dorothy_Mantooth wrote:Could be a big moment in the game should have been a yellow card and a penalty try.

Marginal for sure Not that late. Matowalo makes everyone look late tho. Such a shame he has had to go off

I can't believe opposition teams haven't picked up on the fact Matawalu always go for the interception.

TJ wrote:

Dorothy_Mantooth wrote:Could be a big moment in the game should have been a yellow card and a penalty try.

Marginal for sure  Not that late.  Matowalo makes everyone look late tho.  Such a shame he has had to go off

Yellow and a penalty for me. Too far out and too much uncertainty to consider a pen try.

Glasgow defence looks very solid again, managed to snuff out every half chance. Just need to be a little bit more clinical to put this one to bed. Henry is on now, so the attack may be just a little bit less frenetic and more structured now. A lot of energy to come off the bench as well. Just need to stay composed and we will win.

justified sinner wrote:

TJ wrote:

Dorothy_Mantooth wrote:Could be a big moment in the game should have been a yellow card and a penalty try.

Marginal for sure  Not that late.  Matowalo makes everyone look late tho.  Such a shame he has had to go off

...............Too far out and too much uncertainty to consider a pen try.

Certainly - there were others running back. If its a pen its a yellow - but from some angles on the replay it looked late - from others it didn't.

Tackle from Faletau was OK in my opinion, i mean he couldn't have guessed Matawalu was going to kick, sensible decision from the referee.

Oh god. Down to 14...

Milking the Frak out of that

That is a disgraceful decision

Thats the harshest red card i have ever seen, even worse than Payne's

Shambles!

That is utterly ridiculous. I can't believe it.

Utterly shameless from Rhys Thomas.

Shameful reffing!

Harsh red card there

That was never a red card, a yellow at best, probably not even that. Blatant gamesmanship by the Dragons player!

Nice impartiality from the TMO

Harsh, harsh stuff. Can Dragons capitalise?

Both should have had a yellow, ruined a good game

If this was a red Coombes should get a lifetime ban for his stamp last week.

Red card! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Yellow would be fairer perhaps but it was awful close to the head

Although we'll learn a lot about Glasgow now, if we win it'll lay down a real marker coming through those circumstances away with a loud crowd I'll be very impressed

But TMOs are really not working. It's just allowing the guys who aren't that good officials to make the big calls when they are coming in cold.

Let the ref decide if he sees it, otherwise give it to the citing commissioner.