Treviso v Dragons

WALES star Taulupe Faletau is on bench duty for Newport Gwent Dragons as they prepare for their European showdown with a Guinness Pro12 encounter at Treviso.

The number eight, who played every minute of the Six Nations, is named among the replacements along with openside Ollie Griffiths, who enjoyed a stellar campaign in the Under-20s tournament.

Centre/wing Tyler Morgan also makes a welcome return on the bench after recovering from a knee problem that has sidelined him since January.

Director of rugby Lyn Jones makes two changes to the XV that stunned title chasing Ulster earlier in the month with Jason Tovey and Pat Leach getting the nod at full-back and centre respectively.

Treviso are boosted by the return of Exeter-bound centre Michele Campagnaro, who only played one round of the Six Nations after suffering a knee injury against Ireland.

Three of their 23 featured against Wales in Rome last weekend – centre Enrico Bacchin, flanker Francesco Minto and scrum-half Edoardo Gori.

Treviso: J Hayward, S Ragusi, M Campagnaro, E Bacchin, L Nitoglia, S Christie, A Lucchese, M Zanusso, D Giazzon, R Harden, A Pavanello (captain), C Van Zyl, M Barbini, F Minto, M Luamanu. Replacements: A Anae, R Acosta, M Muccignat, M Fuser, M Swanepoel, D Budd, A Pratichetti, E Gori.

Dragons: J Tovey, T Prydie, P Leach, J Dixon, H Amos, D Jones, J Evans, B Stankovich, R Thomas (captain), B Harris, A Coombs, C Hill, J Thomas, J Benjamin, N Crosswell. Replacements: H Gustafson, P Price, D Way, T Faletau, O Griffiths, L Jones, T Morgan, C Meyer.

Referee: Ian Davies (Wales)

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport/dragons/11885173.Dragons_ace_Taulupe_Faletau_given_supersub_role_in_Treviso/

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Can't say I'm over the moon with the referee we've got for this, but what can you do. Apparently we've never beaten Treviso away, which is a pretty wretched record, so are we going to break our duck tomorrow?

With the Blues having Ulster tonight I really hope we can get a good win tonight and leapfrog them again in the table then let's get in on next week.

We beat them in 2007 in the HC by 2 points. So never in the league. Terrible record!

Even though the league doesn't show it, I personally feel (in my bones!) that the Dragons are on a bit of an upward trajectory after our abysmal start to the season, while Treviso are perhaps spiraling downwards or perhaps maintaining their poor level of the season so far. Therefore, we could win this one. But Dragons away from home are notoriously flaky so I'm not really that confident.

Not sure about Tovey at FB. He doesn't seem like he can be bothered to run at full speed at the best of times, but at FB he'll be forced to when chasing through kicks and touch finders. Not sure he's got the pace for it. Have we no more wingers so that Prydie or Amos could go to FB? Where's Pewtner, Hewitt, et al.?

On the subject of Amos, I've been really impressed with his development. Gash at kicking from hand but he'll get there. But he's a very difficult man to stop when in full flight. Lovely step on him, a good fend, can distribute too, and has a nose for a try! I reckon he could be a new crowd favourite a la Brew a few years back (I take it the Brew fairytale ending - where he returns home and lights up the try line of RP - is sadly not to be? Seemed to have lost some zip and enthusiasm when I last saw him play )

I'm guessing / hoping Tovey's there for his goalkicking. Prydie's misses cost us against Zebre and one of those was a sitter, by all accounts.

Faletau, Griffiths, Morgan and Meyer are handy players to bring off the bench, if needed.

Griff,

Amos has been in great form and whilst North found some in the last few games I was hoping Amos would have got a chance.

I think if Roberts had been ruled out and Sc Williams started then Amos would have been on the bench, lets hope he gets some game time in the warm up games.

Like you said though just give him orders not to kick

Two were apparently straight forward LP, I think. Seeing as Dorian is very much the man in possession at ten, then I think he'll kick or be back up anyway.

Think Tovey just looks deceptively slow. Can't imagine him not running full tilt all the time. It's probably quite harsh on Meyer to be dropped after Ulster, but then who knows what happened in the London Welsh friendly farce.

Would love to think we can win out there, but I tend to build my hopes up and then we have been ending up on some pretty horrible results. We certainly could do with a positive result to help with the final push for Q/F tickets.

It's a good team, with players in their rightful positions for a change. Bar Tovey I guess but he's no stranger to the 15 jersey. I'd be shocked if we didn't win, but I'm often shocked anyway.

Forget everything I said about Tom Prydie and his kicking!

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:Forget everything I said about Tom Prydie and his kicking!

It's been a bit off of late, but I remember looking at the Pro12 top points scorer stats last season or the season before on the Pro12 site and was surprised to find Prydie up there with the likes of Biggar, the top Irish kicker (Keatley or Madigan at the time I think), etc. I think Prydie was 2nd or 3rd and his kick % was comparable. But yes, he hasn't maintained that standard of late. I think maybe as selection hasn't been as consistent for him and the kicking duties seem to change hands a bit.

Just had another look and it was 2012/13. By the end of the season Prydie was 3rd highest point scorer and 4th for conversions and penalty kicks. Cant find kick % though. Not too shabby for a wing/centre/full back!

Griff wrote:Just had another look and it was 2012/13. By the end of the season Prydie was 3rd highest point scorer and 4th for conversions and penalty kicks. Cant find kick % though. Not too shabby for a wing/centre/full back!

He was always reliable and has a bit more extra distance in his armoury than other but as mentioned he's been quite hit and miss this season. Then again so has Lyns selection on occasions, let's hope he and the whole team get a bit of confidence ahead of next week now.

C'Mon Dragons

He was on the money yesterday, by the sounds of it. I hope Scrum V give us decent highlights, but I bet we get a minute tops.

Luckless Pedestrian wrote:He was on the money yesterday, by the sounds of it. I hope Scrum V give us decent highlights, but I bet we get a minute tops.

LD,

Be serious will you we will have Nuggett banging on about how next week is the Blues only chance of getting something out of season now no mention of us etc.

Oh, it'll be totally Blues-centric. We all know that.

Kingsley is on again, so you would hope there would be a bit of balance.

They were fairly balanced in the end. I don't like them using current coaches as pundits though, because Kingsley couldn't say everything he wanted to say because of his role at the Dragons, and Martyn Williams couldn't say everything he wanted to say because he had the Dragons head coach sitting next to him.

Martyn Williams tipped the Dragons to win the quarter final. I'm not sure I like that!