Dragons slayed by Treviso

Newport Gwent Dragons 22 Treviso 24

Treviso gained revenge for their Heineken Cup defeat to Newport Gwent Dragons today by claiming a dramatic win in the return clash in Wales to send the home side out of the Heineken Cup.

The build-up had been dominated by the disciplinary issues surrounding Wales tight-head prop Rhys Thomas and centre Rhodri Gomer-Davies, who were locked up in an Italian jail for two days last weekend and still face action from both the region and European Rugby Cup Ltd.

Treviso came within a whisker of dumping the Dragons out of the cup last week when a Ceri Sweeney drop goal at the end gave the Welsh region a win.

So it was no surprise that the Italian champions sensed they could come to Wales and beat the opposition given their second chance.

And Treviso came out with real purpose, with their defence well organised and skipper, South African Marius Goosen, organising matters from the centre.

It left the Dragons chasing the slightest gap in order to make some progress down the pitch but they were given those opportunities yet frustratingly made little use territorially.

That belief paid dividends for Treviso as Goosen launched a 38-metre penalty towards the posts just five minutes into the match after the Dragons had been accused of going over the top at a ruck.

Goosen had another shot after 16 minutes from 51 metres which went wide but Treviso’s grip on the match, having not scored a victory so far in their three group games, tightened with the opening try.

They secured possession from a ruck which followed a line-out three metres out. From there, prop Nicolas De Gregori slid around the left and dived over from short range.

It was looking grim for the Dragons’ bid to get that four-try bonus-point winning lifeline but matters turned for the region during the final quarter.

De Gregori was sin-binned for illegal use of the boot and almost immediately, centre Gomer-Davies went through a hole on the Treviso 10-metre line on the left, made ground, fed wing Martyn Thomas and, eventually, skipper Colin Charvis stretched to put the ball on the opposition line under the posts, making Sweeney’s conversion simple.

And the Dragons reached half-way towards their try target when flanker Joe Bearman picked and drove over from a close scrum. Sweeney converted but Goosen soon countered with a second penalty.

It all started to go horribly wrong, though, around the hour mark. Loose-head prop Adam Black was sin-binned for holding down at a ruck and, moments later, number eight Dion Kingi romped through a gap 15 metres out to put Treviso back in front.

The Dragons were not quite finished as the final 10 minutes approached. Thomas put his side back in front with a drive over the line which put the Dragons a solitary point ahead at 19-18.

Sweeney, though, continued the dramatic finale by landing a drop goal from 30 metres with two minutes left. However, Goosen’s third penalty success gained revenge for the Italians and sent the Dragons out of the competition.