Northampton hammer Newport Dragons in LV Cup

Northampton Saints hammered Welsh rivals Newport Dragons 16-34 in their Anglo Welsh LV= Cup clash at Rodney Parade on Saturday afternoon.

Northampton are almost certain of qualifying for the knockout stages thanks
a hard-fought victory in horrific conditions which included a 20-minute interruption
due to a hail storm.

Saints opened the scoring with a penalty try at scrum time. Faatoina Autagavaia
crossed seven minutes later but Dragons led 16-15 at half time thanks to the
boot of Jason Tovey and a Luc Jones try just before the break.

Saints took the game by the scruff of the neck after the break with tries from
Mike Haywood, Gareth Denman and GJ van Velze earning a bonus-point victory.

Final Score Newport Dragons 16 (16) Northampton Saints 34 (15)

Scorers

Newport Dragons
Tries – Jones
Pen -Tovey
Con – Tovey (3)
Drop –

Northampton Saints
Tries – Penalty, Autagavaia, Haywood, Denman, Van Velze
Pen – Dickson
Con – Dickson (3)
Drop –

Match Officials
Referee: Andrew Small (England)
Assistant referees: Simon Rees (Wales), Daniel Jones (Wales)
Television match official: Derek Bevan (Wales)
Timekeeper: Hopkin Thomas (Wales)
Assessor: Les Peard (Wales)

Teams

Dragons: 15 Dan Evans, 14 Matthew Pewtner, 13 Pat Leach, 12 Ashley Smith, 11 Will Harries, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Luc Jones, 8 Netani Talei, 7 James Benjamin, 6 Lewis Evans (c), 5 Adam Jones, 4 Cory Hill, 3 Nathan Buck, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Phil Price.

Replacements: 16 T. Rhys Thomas, 17 Owen Evans, 18 Joe Mills, 19 Matthew Screech, 20 Jevon Groves, 21 Richie Rees, 22 Kris Burton, 23 Ross Wardle.

Northampton: 15 James Wilson, 14 Ken Pisi, 13 Tom Stephenson, 12 Dom Waldouck, 11 Fa’atoina Autagavaia, 10 Glenn Dickson, 9 Kahn Fotuali’i, 8 GJ van Velze, 7 Phil Dowson (capt), 6 Teimana Harrison, 5 Christian Day, 4 Rob Verbakel, 3 Gareth Denman, 2 Mike Haywood, 1 Ethan Waller.

Replacements: 16 Ross McMillan, 17 Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi, 18 Adam Parkins 19 Ben Nutley 20 Matt Williams, 21 Alex Day, 22 Sam Olver 23 George Pisi.