It all seemed quite quiet with 45 minutes to go for another of our biggest games of the season. (Sam’s comment that the Dragons looked very organised in their warm up, so they must be up for it, was not helpful.) The crowd did grow though and were warmed up by the announcer with even an acknowledgement from the lone cameraman in the North Stand.  Time for kick-off arrived but half of the guard of honour had not made it and even those that had nearly tripped up the emerging Dragons team.

Dragons kicked off. JonR43 reminded me that I was match reporting and might want to make notes and not just watch the game. It was lucky he did as the game was only on the red button so we couldn’t be there to record it and as someone in front of us said, for some people the red button just turns their TV off.  At the start there were some clearance kicks and line outs ending with Eoghan kicking to their 22, Dragons getting the line out and only kicking out about 3m further away from their try line. At that line out, they pushed Nick in the air – the medics rushed on, we were awarded the penalty, Nick got up and Peter Hewat got our first three points.

Dragons attacked from the restart but kicked the ball out on the full. We conceded a scrum for a non-straight throw in. We missed one tackle but then picked up a Dragons player and nearly made a dump tackle but thankfully had the sense to lower him horizontally to the ground.  Our maul moved us forward to past the half way line, they regained the ball from a kick but not long after that Peter Hewat got the ball, made a good run and Thorpe went over for our first try. Hewat got the conversion and it was 10-0 to LI after about 12 minutes. Dragons took another quick restart (Sam was right, they were up for it). We were brought back for a kick out on the full that we thought was from our 22. They attacked well briefly but we regained the ball, Dec chipped the ball which went out off of one of their players. At that point, a rare event occurred – they stole our lineout! However, a forward pass led to a scrum on the half way line. (At this time, Dan Murphy was warming up by himself, which suggested an early replacement). Thorpe got the ball out of the scrum and passed to Pete Richards who chipped ahead and then was tackled off the ball but Eoghan was behind him and ran on to collect the ball and score try number two. Hewat added the extras and the referee had a chat with a Dragons player. (17-0 after 18 minutes).

Another quick restart and Dermody had been down a while. We conceded a penalty on the half way for not rolling away – they kicked for touch, attacked from the line out and we conceded another penalty, this time inside our 22 and the referee had a chat with Shane this time.  They went for touch again, 5m out, but fortunately they threw the ball in to Bob.  We then kicked it out on the full but after the line out get a penalty that Delon kicked to touch (the touch judge didn’t seem very generous at this point) and we kept the ball. There was then a penalty to us with an accompanying yellow card for a Dragon not rolling away. As had seemed likely for a while, Dermody went off and Dan Murphy replaced him. The referee appeared very concerned that we now had an extra player, having missed Dermody’s slow exit, but a wave from the fourth official indicated what had happened.  We lost the ball just after the lineout (a truck and trailer offence I am told) but did not remain without it for long. The forwards had the ball and every time they looked all they could see were other forwards but they managed to hold on to it and the ball got to Shane who made one of his jinking runs and scored.  Hewat again converted, making it 24-0 after about 25 minutes.

Soon after the restart there was a safety announcement (without the chimes that we are always informed pre-match would accompany a safety announcement) that an ‘incident pen’ had been found. Now I thought that might help with writing a match report until we eventually worked it out that it was an insulin pen they were talking about.  Dragons were near our 22 by this point and Topsy’s clearance kick got charged down and Dragons got their first points, making the score 24-7 after about half an hour.  We started well from the restart but then we seemed to be at sixes and sevens (by which unfortunately I don’t mean that Steffon and Dec started scoring lots of tries). There was a scrum to Dragons that ended in a penalty to LI for an infringement and their sin-binned player (Emerick) came back on. I said ‘Come on boys, we need to score before half time.’ They must have heard me because a minute or so later Peter Hewat scored  - we had our bonus point try and it was 29-7 with a couple of minutes before the break.  Jon_R43 said ‘We can’t throw this away’ but I reminded him of the ECC semi-final at Newcastle two years ago where we nearly lost a three try lead and which has made me never sure we have won until the final whistle ever since.  In a line out not long after the restart, Nick was taken out in the air and another Dragon went to the bin. Delon made great distance with his kick for touch but we knocked on somehow at the line out. We got the ball back and attacked well again but a knock on from us brought the half to an end. A similar situation to our game at Rodney Parade – would it end the same?  Digger did very well at his press-ups demonstration at half-time, much better than his paper aeroplane flying – as was said; paws probably make paper aeroplanes hard. We could see the shadow of the wind turbine on the East stand too, so the weather was holding out for us.

As the players re-emerged Topsy had been replaced by Tomas. Dan looked at the bench and noted ‘massive strapping’ on Dermody.  We went on the attack but there were about five knock-ons after Shane’s chip ahead and the first one was by us. After a while we were given a penalty that Delon kicked to touch. There was debate around where we were sitting as to whether we should have taken the 3 points to keep the scoreboard ticking over or whether it was good to have kept our attacking intent. It looked like a good move in the end (after a couple more knock ons) because some good passing led to Thorpe going over for another try, to make the score 34-7.  I may blame the next half hour’s scores on Jon and Sam_R43 because at that point they said ‘No more Irish and one more for Dragons’ so they could do well in the Prediction League.

LI then made a couple of replacements – Gonzalo for Hewat (Delon went to full back with Gonzalo at outside centre) and Dodge for Richards. I’m not sure Peter really wanted to go as he was talking to Bob before he went.  Dragons had a long period of attack and playing with an advantage to them ended in a try about 10 minutes into the second half making it 34-12 (I forgot to check what time the second half started and without a stopping clock I could only estimate). At this point Dragons made two replacements and their sin bin came to an end.

Dragons attacked again and during this period they made a substitution and Danie came on for Paice. They kicked to touch and we won the ball but knocked it on, resulting in a scrum to them on our 5m line. We defended hard but they eventually got the ball out to the wing and scored in the corner. So after about, 25 minutes the score was 34-17.  We brought on Hudson for Nick. Dragons were moving forward from their 22 and kicked to touch. We then knocked on when we got the ball (this was all getting too scary for a natural pessimist). We attacked again but gave away a scrum for running into our own man. As they attacked again, Delon made a clearance kick but they were all too soon back on our line and scored again making it 34-24 after just over 25 minutes. Fortunately my maths at the time didn’t add on their conversion, so I never realised they got to within ten points of our score by their third unanswered try of the half. They made another substitution and Dan was biting his nails.  We got back into their half, Delon made a great leap to get the ball but they ended up with a 22 drop out, kicking to the half way point. They made more substitutions and Phil Murphy came on for Steffon. Sam wanted to know why time was going so slowly!  Dragons had the ball again but we got it back – could we avoid kicking it back to them this time? Then we got a penalty in front of the posts that cheered us all up. However, the referee went over to talk to the touch judge who had seen Murphy being blocked by a Dragons player. He chatted to the Dragons about that and brought us back to a penalty further back and to the side instead of the one in front of the posts. We were all getting very cross with the referee for this decision as Delon kicked for touch but then Thorpe went over for his hat trick try which Eoghan converted, making the score 41-24 after about 25 minutes. What a hard job the referee has and how admirably he deals with tricky situations!!

We attacked and Shane is announced as Man of the Match (Now Shane was good but poor Richard Thorpe, what more do you have to do to be made Man of the Match?) They got the ball and were close to scoring from a kick ahead – we shouted ‘Man on’ to Delon and he kicked the ball out. They got a scrum on our 5m line – we have played at least 80 minutes, how I want a stopping clock.  They knocked on and we cleared from the scrum and then the game ended when they knocked on after their line out. Final score 41-24.

Why did it have to be so scary after we had got four tries? However, we did succeed in getting a bonus point victory.  Well done the team for that achievement.  Five games down and one to go for us in Pool One and we still top the pool.

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