sea_point wrote: Ok, you seem to be siding with Dragons fans in believing against clear evidence to the contrary that they are currently better than us

I don't know how you could infer that from my previous posts but apologies if I was unclear. I don't think Dragons are a better team than us I just don't think that we are so much better then them as to walk into RP and expect 4 points even with a full team and 15 players on the pitch for the whole game.

Re Toby Faletau: he was outstanding in the World Cup IMO but hasn't reached that form of late, not alone in that Welsh team though.

The IMF wrote: sea_point not sure what the correct grammatical analogy is - perhaps addition of a footnote - you neglected to mention that Dragons had a man sent off for 30mins and were looking back in the game before this occurred.

You also previously listed a number of players that the Dragons have lost in the last couple of seasons as a barometer of their current strength which I feel is just a tad ironic for a Connacht fan to do given our record of holding on to our best players.

All I was trying to say is that if you think there was one Dragons fan in Rodney Parade that expected anything other than 4 points against us you were deluding yourself. One of them i was watching the game with was muttering about Parks being well suited to the 10man rugby game we play in the West! Perhaps somewhere in between his view of us and your view of them the truth sits. Ultimately, the infallible table shows they have won 3 games so far this season and so have we.

My humble opinion, having watched the Cardiff game on the TV and been at the Dragons game I would say that Cardiff was our worst display this season, especially given no Macca, no Gorgeous and no Muldoom starting v Dragons and that White and Swifty seeming to picked up early knocks too which severely limited their dynamism.

I'd agree that the Cardiff performance was a poor one, we got caught in the blocks and never got going. But that was a stronger Cardiff side in Galway than Dragons can put out most weeks, as their inter-region match at Rodney Parade in Rnd 3 showed .

Ok, you seem to be siding with Dragons fans in believing against clear evidence to the contrary that they are currently better than us, so as a matter of interest which current first choice players out of their whole squad would you swap into ours...

Dan Lydiate
Tondi Chavhanga

Annnnnnnnnnnd that's about that really...

As I said I'm yet to be convinced by Toby Faletau (he was exceptional at under-age because Islander kids tend to be massive compared to European ones), he was fast tracked out of desperation into the Wales Senior squad after Powell's cart-gate but only delivers occasionally. I've watched Toby since he joined the Welsh U-20's and can confidently state our George at his best is far better than Toby at his best. He may turn into Zin-Zan/Harinordiquy/Perisse/Reid in the future (don't think so), but he's nowhere near that level right now..

The facts are that Dragon's couldn't keep their best players and badly needed to redevelop their ground, so they now and for the foreseeable future have way less money for players than the other regions after redeveloping two sides of the ground. Ian Nimmo (a show-pony Sebastian Chabal wannabe) from Cornish Pirates was their BIG signing of the summer, and he didn't even make it onto the pitch for the bench. Tom Prydie was let go by Ospreys as he had actually gone backwards since being included in the Welsh training squad as a schoolboy. The rest were predominantly AIL standard pick-ups form the Welsh Premiership.

What the Dragons do have going for them is that they are a good rugby nursery (and a proper Rugby Club), but it'll take them a few seasons just to get back to where they were strength wise two years ago.

We play them at home on 5th January and if we both have near to our best sides out I'd be pretty confident we will put them away without too much bother..

sea_point not sure what the correct grammatical analogy is - perhaps addition of a footnote - you neglected to mention that Dragons had a man sent off for 30mins and were looking back in the game before this occurred.

You also previously listed a number of players that the Dragons have lost in the last couple of seasons as a barometer of their current strength which I feel is just a tad ironic for a Connacht fan to do given our record of holding on to our best players.

All I was trying to say is that if you think there was one Dragons fan in Rodney Parade that expected anything other than 4 points against us you were deluding yourself. One of them i was watching the game with was muttering about Parks being well suited to the 10man rugby game we play in the West! Perhaps somewhere in between his view of us and your view of them the truth sits. Ultimately, the infallible table shows they have won 3 games so far this season and so have we.

My humble opinion, having watched the Cardiff game on the TV and been at the Dragons game I would say that Cardiff was our worst display this season, especially given no Macca, no Gorgeous and no Muldoom starting v Dragons and that White and Swifty seeming to picked up early knocks too which severly limited their dynamism.

Just to put a full stop in this thread, did anyone see the result or highlights from Treviso this weekend (32-13 loss). Think it backs up everything I said regarding the Dragon's current standing and the quality of our performance last weekend. That was probably our poorest performance this season by a mile..

To be frank I thought all the provincial games this week were dire. Leinster were horrendous and while I only caught a bit of the Munster game it was hardly inspiring stuff. Shame we lost but the quality of provincial rugby across the board this week seems to have been bad. Not saying it's an excuse by any means for Connacht to lose just putting it in some perspective.

The IMF wrote: I am not being funny sea_point but your use of the phrase "such awful opposition away" really does not sit well with me as a description of the Dragons. It was not too long ago we went away to Italy and got beaten by a team of part timers - are we really so improved now that we expect to go anywhere and demand 4 points? No i am not saying that the Prato result should be used as a benchmark for future results but we might take into account and give all of our opponents the respect they deserve.

I would not say we were simply awful by any stretch of the imagination we dominated the first 20 mins then two very harsh yellow cards later find ourselves going into the break 8-3 down. Yes we were not as accurate as we would like but to dismiss the conditions all together is a tad disingenuous.

I was trying to rack my brains and come up with a decent player rating but it's so hard to pull out specifics when your in the stands and the action can be happening on the other side of the pitch. The only person i would be critical of was Jason Harris Wright because of his darts and the delay in getting them in. Outside of that I would struggle to pick anyone out who had a below par performance.

Really can't recall anything Poolman did that would have you highlight him as one of our best backs, he kicked the ball through on the grubber on two or three occasions when he had men outside him. Personally I thought Henshaw struggled with the Dragons physicality a little but I guess goes to show how two people can interpret the same 80mins in such different ways.

I called it as I saw it I'm afraid TIMF, that was a weak, weak, weak Dragons side and overall despite a decent start (which I did mention) we were awful. After going behind we rarely seriously threatened to find the scores to win the game..

In the last two years The Dragon have been stripped of all of their quality players (Bearman, Charteris, Brew, Tovey, Fussel etc..) and their only fit Wales International Fealatu (over-rated in my opinion anyway) was with Wales, Dan Lydiate is long term injured. The lost a bunch more to retirement. They were where they were in the League for good reason, and having watched both side regularly this season the comparison I made pre match was form based.

As for the conditions, we have played much better in worse conditions against much better sides already this season.

Not having the ref excuse, good teams play the ref our problem came from inaccuracy and then indiscipline. For the card decisions the ref was advised by Welsh International referee James Jones who was running touch, he's a bit over fussy but generally quite accurate. But the Yellow cards were completely avoidable..

Regards Poolman, he didn't see that much ball with Parks kicking so much of it away, but the few times he got his hands on it he looked powerful, incisive and quick. He's not BO'D but I liked what I saw from him. But I still maintain that we are struggling to replace Henry Fa'afili, getting Griff & Tonetti fit soon would really help our ability to offload in midfield...

Regarding JHW and the darts: It is difficult because the line-out is a unit skill, the delays were not his fault. There is a trigger for the ball to go in and the hooker has to wait until the lifters and jumper are ready (same as scrum-half and scrum).

I am not being funny sea_point but your use of the phrase "such awful opposition away" really does not sit well with me as a description of the Dragons. It was not too long ago we went away to Italy and got beaten by a team of part timers - are we really so improved now that we expect to go anywhere and demand 4 points? No i am not saying that the Prato result should be used as a benchmark for future results but we might take into account and give all of our opponents the respect they deserve.

I would not say we were simply awful by any stretch of the imagination we dominated the first 20 mins then two very harsh yellow cards later find ourselves going into the break 8-3 down. Yes we were not as accurate as we would like but to dismiss the conditions all together is a tad disingenuous.

I was trying to rack my brains and come up with a decent player rating but it's so hard to pull out specifics when your in the stands and the action can be happening on the other side of the pitch. The only person i would be critical of was Jason Harris Wright because of his darts and the delay in getting them in. Outside of that I would struggle to pick anyone out who had a below par performance.

Really can't recall anything Poolman did that would have you highlight him as one of our best backs, he kicked the ball through on the grubber on two or three occasions when he had men outside him. Personally I thought Henshaw struggled with the Dragons physicality a little but I guess goes to show how two people can interpret the same 80mins in such different ways.

Decided to leave it 48 hours before commenting after a having made a 6 hour, 300 mile round trip (the last 150 in fog) to watch that awful sh*te especially having made the longer road trip to Swansea only a few weeks back for another duff performance as well..

We were awful, simply awful. I just cannot believe despite rustiness (and allowing the fact the Dragons have kept playing (LV Cup games)) that we could not gather sufficient composure or energy to put such awful opposition away.

After 20 minutes you could only believe one team was going to win that game, but then after we had started losing the plot the yellows came within three minutes of each other about half an hour in.

I wasn't too concerned being only one man (JHW) down, up until that point the Dragons hadn't put us under any real pressure of any note. But when Browne got himself carded as well (and Eric should really read him the riot act over that), even a side as toothless as that Dragons side sniffed blood. They were that bad they really made tough work of figuring out how to make use of the two man advantage but eventually we ran out of numbers in defence

I expected more leadership from Parks at 10, but his only tactic for the whole duration in which he was on seemed to be to hoist the f*ckin ball in the air time after time despite our chasing being ineffective, the same sh*te that O'Connor and Nikora were mullered on here for frequently before his arrival. Yes there was a lot of rain in the UK the previous couple of days, but ther was only a light smattering on Friday night but but the pitch held up really well.

While I think McSharry is a very bright prospect, he needs to learn how to free his hands in the tackle. I like his direct style, but he needs to learn how to offload (we REALLY still miss Henry in that role).

Our two best backs were Henshaw and Danie Poolman by a mile, everyone else seemed to just go through the motions...

Tiernan did his usual thing of standing around watching a lot of the time with a Pus on him, his body-language was awful. Not sure why Kidney was including him in the Ireland training camp because our only near International standard winger was away scoring tries in each of his games for Tonga.

I could be way off the mark but I have a feeling that Tiernan has had too many years of being told that his is a borderline great player, future International blah-blah, and he now believes his own hype a little too much and doesn't put the effort in in these sort of games. Some time somewhere else may sort him out and drive him to become the player he could be. But for me if Fionn Carr made it known that he was keen on coming back, then Tiernan that we see most of the time just wouldn't see game time...

Overall a thoroughly unprofessional performance by the lads, there was a lack of leadership out there, a lack of accuracy and discipline and there were far too many under-par performances over the 80mins from too may players. Never mind the performance I'm absolutely disgusted that we allowed Cardiff & Edinburgh to slip away from us in the table, and also allow Benneton & Dragons to close right up on us. We're one game away from being second from bottom again...

The lads who played on Friday should apologise to those out injured and away on International duty for that performance, because they let everybody down with that effort not just the supporters..

Dissapointing result. Hoped we'd win but expected at least a losing bonus point. The next two games were our chance to move clear of the bottom 4 but it looks like we'll be stuck in a dogfight with Edinburgh, Dragons and Treviso for the rest of the season. Next week is now even more important. A win is essential, preferably by more than 8.

Just back in the door in London after a 4 hour trip back from Newport - had a good night at it despite the result and delays on the train on the way home.

Thought we started off brightly but once we went down to 13 men we naturally lost the run of ourselves, credit to the lads they did well to hold out for as long as they did but you always felt the try was coming with the numbers the dragons had.

We put some nice stuff together in patches in the second half TOH and McShaz made a couple of decent breaks and we should have scored late on in the second half when TOH cut through their defense around the half way line and was hauled down just shy.

You could really tell we hadn't played for a couple of weeks at the breakdown, we were more than a little rusty and to be honest the dragons just seemed to want it that bit more in the 2nd half in that area.

Hand on heart dragons deserved the win overall, but I have not seen a ref have such a bad game in a long time it was genuinely laughable at times some of the decisions he gave against us. Again compounded by a lack of support from his assistants who were even worse then he was.

Will try and do a player rating with brief commentary on here tomorrow.

Very disappointing result. Can't comment on match, as wasn't there however.

wtf happened???/

This is about as good as I could find:

live.statrugby.com/1/dragons/timeline

3-3 down to 13. jason harris wright and andrew browne binned

Well at least that's something.

'Hon da Cows. Mooo!

sadly not. only updates im getting is from twitter. 3-0 to us