Perpignan keep injury-hit Dragons scoreless

Newport Gwent Dragons 0 Perpignan 25

Percy Montgomery enjoyed a successful return to familiar territory today as he guided Perpignan into the Heineken Cup knockout stages with victory at Newport Gwent Dragons.

The win put Perpignan second in Pool One behind London Irish, but as one of the two best runners-up after the Frenchmen missed out on a vital bonus point that would have put them above the Exiles as they scored three instead of four touchdowns.

The Dragons, hit by 14 injuries to their squad, were well and truly out of the tournament before kick-off but, for the French outfit, the scenario was simple - win and they were through to the last eight.

As the steady drizzle came down to make mistakes commonplace, Montgomery returned to the city where he spent four years with the Dragons and soon began to dominate proceedings.

The South African star put over one of two early penalties from 22 metres and, although the home region fought back to pin Perpignan close to the halfway line, the miserable afternoon got worse for them as captain Colin Charvis limped off with a leg injury.

On 28 minutes, Montgomery was in on the act again as Perpignan's pack moved them onto the Dragons line and secured the ball from a ruck.

Scrum-half Nicolas Durand spun it out to centre David Marty who fed Montgomery for Jean-Philippe Grandclaude to go over unopposed for the touchdown that Montgomery converted.

Dragons outside-half Ceri Sweeney did liven his side up a bit towards half-time with a nice break into the Perpignan 22.

A minute's possession in the French side's danger zone ended with a turnover and more frustration for home coach Paul Turner as his men ran to the dressing room at the end of the half.

A second Montgomery penalty on the resumption eased Perpignan into a 13-0 lead and that seemed to be that given the scoring chances the Dragons had to that point.

The Welsh region found some fighting spirit but still could not get any points on the board by the hour mark.

Centre Phil Dollman could not ground the ball when put under the posts by Sweeney.

As the Dragons pack rumbled around the fringes of a rolling maul they could not quite find the gaps to go over.

Replacement scrum-half Andy Williams put through a dangerous grubber kick that Perpignan just managed to get safe.

The Dragons' afternoon was summed up as Marty intercepted a lazy pass on halfway by flanker Joe Bearman to stretch his legs and go over from 50 metres.

With the final move of the match Perpignan rounded things off with a third try as winger Adrian Plante went over in the corner for Montgomery to convert.