Match Centre: Dragons 29-35 Leinster

Dragons 29-35 Leinster, Rodney Parade
Scorecard

Leinster survived a late scare from Dragons as they registered a 35-29 win in the latest round of Pro14 at Rodney Parade on Friday.

This is 11th win for Leinster from 12 games as they extended their lead over second placed Ulster to five points while Dragons are at fifth place.

Leinster went on to concede six penalties in the opening quarter of the game out of which Sam Davies kicked three to provide Dragons a nine point lead.

Leinster's response came in the 24th minute when Peter Dooley burst through a maul to touchdown and Ross Byrne kicked the conversion to bring the gap down to two points.

Even though Davies slotted his fourth three pointer in the 26th minute, the Irish side went on to claim the lead for the first time in the game Scott Penny forced his way over the line from close range around the half-hour mark with Byrne improving it to make the scoreline 12-14.

As the break was approaching, Davies kicked his fifth penalty goal as Dragons finished the opening half with a slender one point lead which could have been more but Ben Fry's try was ruled out by TMO for obstruction by lock Joe Davies.

Dragons suffered a setback early in the second half when Lloyd Fairbrother was sin-binned for a no-arms tackle on what his 100th game for the region and immediately Leinster capitalised in the numerical advantage with Josh Murphy dotting down and Byrne kicked the extras making it 15-21.

The trend continued as Dragons suffered their second yellow card in the game with this time Dan Baker being the culprit for collapsing a line out that also resulted in a penalty try for the visitors making it 15-28 which became 15-35 with Dan Sheehan's try in the 63rd minute.

Dragons looked relentless and scored two more tries in the final 10 minutes through Luke Baldwin and Josh Lewis but it did not quite prove enough as they succumbed to a six point defeat.

Team line-up:

Dragons: Jordan Williams; Jonah Holmes, Aneurin Owen, Jack Dixon, Ashton Hewitt; Sam Davies, Rhodri Williams; Brok Harris, Richard Hibbard, Lloyd Fairbrother, Joe Davies, Ben Carter, Matthew Screech, Ben Fry, Huw Taylor

Reserves: Ellis Shipp, Greg Bateman, Chris Coleman, Joe Maksymiw, Dan Baker, Luke Baldwin, Josh Lewis, Connor Edwards.

Leinster: Max O'Reilly; Cian Kelleher, Rory O'Loughlin, Ross Byrne, Dave Kearney; Harry Byrne, Luke McGrath; Peter Dooley, James Tracy, Tom Clarkson, Ross Molony, Ryan Baird, Josh Murphy, Scott Penny, Jack Conan

Reserves: Dan Sheehan, Marcus Hanan, Greg McGrath, Devin Toner, Scott Fardy, Rowan Osborne, David Hawkshaw, Jamie Osborne.