Newport give Kings wet weather lesson

Cape Town - An excellent display of wet weather rugby saw the Newport Gwent Dragons beat the Southern Kings 29-13 in a PRO14 encounter played in Newport, Wales.

The Kings opened the scoring in the 3rd minute when flyhalf Pieter-Steyn De Wet slotted a penalty after a scrum infringement by the home side.

That spurred Newport into gear with the home side camping in the Kings 25 metre area for a number of phases before going wide to send left winger Hallam Amos over in the corner.

Veteran flyhalf Gavin Henson added the conversion to take the score out to 7-3 in the 6th minute. 

Both pivots then added a penalty each to see the score move out to 10-6 with a quarter of the match gone. 

As conditions began to worsen, Newport scored an unconverted try thanks to a well drilled rolling maul which saw hooker Elliot Dee score in the left-hand corner for a 15-6 lead in the 36th minute. 

Their third try soon followed with Amos getting his second after a clever reverse pass by scrumhalf Sarel Pretorius. 

Henson added the conversion for Newport to extend their lead to 22-6 at half-time. 

The home side started the second half the way they had ended the first and within two minutes of the restart, hooker Dee had his second of the evening and Newports bonus point try after more excellent work by the pack.

Henson added the conversion which saw the Newport with a healthy 29-6 lead.

But credit to the Kings as in the 56th minute, they had their first try of the night as flanker Anidisa Ntsila crashed over after a driving maul.

De Wet added the conversion as the visitors cut Newport's lead to 29-13. 

And that's the way it stayed till full-time.

Next week sees the Cheetahs taking on the Glasgow Warriors in Bloemfontein while the Kings face Benetton Treviso in Treviso, Italy.

Scorers

Newport

Tries: Hallam Amos (2), Elliot Dee (2)

Conversions: Gavin Henson (3)

Penalty: Gavin Henson (1)

Kings

Try: Anidisa Ntsila

Conversion: Pieter-Steyn de Wet

Penalties: Pieter-Steyn de Wet (2)

Teams

Newport

15 Carl Meyer, 14 Ashton Hewitt, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Hallam Amos, 10 Gavin Henson, 9 Sarel Pretorius; 1 Brok Harris, 2 Elliot Dee, 3 Leon Brown, 4 Matthew Screech, 5 Cory Hill (c), 6 James Thomas, 7 Ollie Griffiths, 8 James Benjamin.

Substitutes: 16 Ellis Shipp, 17 Thomas Davies, 18 Lloyd Fairbrother, 19 Joe Davies, 20 Aaron Wainwright, 21 Dane Blacker, 22 Angus O’Brien, 23 Thretton Palamo.

Kings

15 Masixole Banda, 14 Yaw Penxe, 13 Jacques Nel, 12 Berton Klaasen, 11 Alshaun Bock, 10 Pieter-Steyn de Wet, 9 Godlen Masimla, 8 Dries van Schalkwyk, 7 Jurie van Vuuren, 6 Andisa Ntsila, 5 Bobby de Wee, 4 Stephan Greeff, 3 Martin Dreyer, 2 Michael Willemse (captain), 1 Schalk Ferreira

Substitutes: 16 Stephan Coetzee, 17 Rossouw de Klerk, 18 Entienne Swanepoel, 19 Lubabalo Mtyanda, 20 Khaya Majola, 21 Rowan Gouws, 22 Oliver Zono, 23 Luzuko Vulindlu