The Dragons bravely fought their way back into contention after trailing 17-0 at one stage but could not narrow the gap on John Fletcher’s Falcons in the EDF Energy Cup clash at Kingston Park.
The home side had raced into a 17-0 lead through Steve Jones, Brent Wilson and Toby Flood against 13 men. But the Dragons rallied and got themselves back into the game through Martyn Thomas and Andy Williams, only to be let down by Aled Thomas’s kicking.
Ollie Phillips and John Rudd gave the hosts a big enough lead to thwart Rhys Thomas’s two tries. But with 10 minutes to go, the home side got their fourth try and bonus point.
John Rudd burst through a static Dragons defence and survived a tap tackle from Wayne Evans to go over, with Steve Jones converting.
The Dragons were not finished though and responded immediately. Richard Mustoe was halted at the line, but Rhys Thomas was on hand to finish off and collect a bonus point of their own.
It also earned them a second bonus point for being less than seven points down, but crucially, Aled Thomas missed another conversion leaving the Dragons needing a try in the dying moments which they could not manage.
Dragons Head Coach Paul Turner said, “You have to say we left too much on the table in the first half and got punished for it. We got back into a winning position but made too many errors.
“You cannot give a quality player like Toby Flood that sort of room, and we had two guys in the sin bin and you can’t do that.”
