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Cape Town - The Dragons proved too strong for the Southern Kings at Rodney Parade, recovering from their opening round PRO14 defeat to Benetton to win 27-22.
The hosts started the game off on the front foot, with Ollie Griffiths scoring the first try after just three minutes following a break from deep. Aaron Wainwright then added a second 10 minutes later after charging down Masixole Banda’s clearance.
With two conversions and a penalty to their name in addition to the early tries, Dragons led 17-0 after 21 minutes, but their momentum was derailed five minutes later when Rhodri Williams was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on.
After a sustained spell of Kings pressure, Michael Willemse scored in the corner following a lineout maul immediately after the yellow card.
Just three minutes later, the South African side added another try through Bjorn Basson, who surged down the touchline from halfway to get the ball down in the corner.
The visitors carried their momentum into the second half, and although the Dragons kept them at bay with some solid defending initially, Godlen Masimla scored in the corner 15 minutes after the break.
Following Banda’s conversion, the scores stayed level until Josh Lewis’ penalty 62 minutes into the game. Four minutes later, Lewis got on the end of an up-and-under from Rhodri Williams and ran all the way to score, extending the lead beyond a converted try.
An 80th minute consolation try from Yaw Penxe came too late for the Kings as they came up just short of their first away win in PRO14 history.
Scorers:
Dragons
Tries: O Griffiths, A Wainwright, J Lewis
Conversions: J Lewis 3
Penalties: J Lewis 2
Yellow Cards: R Williams
Kings
Tries: M Willemse, B Basson, G Masimla, Y Penxe
Conversion: M Banda
Teams:
Dragons:
15 Jordan Williams, 14 Dafydd Howells, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Hallam Amos, 10 Josh Lewis, 9 Rhodri Williams, 8 Ross Moriarty, 7 Ollie Griffiths, 6 Aaron Wainwright, 5 Cory Hill (captain), 4 Matthew Screech, 3 Leon Brown, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Brok Harris
Substitutes: 16 Richard Hibbard, 17 Ryan Bevington, 18 Lloyd Fairbrother, 19 Brandon Nansen, 20 Huw Taylor, 21 Tavis Knoyle, 22 Arwel Robson, 23 Adam Warren
Kings: 15 Yaw Penxe, 14 Michael Makase, 13 Harlon Klassen, 12 Berton Klassen, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Masixole Banda, 9 Rudi van Rooyen, 8 Andisa Ntsila, 7 Martinus Burger, 6 Stephan De Wit, 5 Bobby De Wee, 4 Schalk Oelofse, 3 Luvuyo Pupuma, 2 Michael Willemse (captain), 1 Justin Forwood
Substitutes: 16 Alandre Van Rooyen, 17 Schalk Ferreira, 18 Lupumlo Mguca, 19 John-Charles Astle, 20 Ruaan Lerm, 21 Godlen Masimla, 22 Martin Du Toit, 23 Ulrich Beyers
