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La meute des Loups roumains a bien résisté le week-end dernier dans la glaciale Bucarest. Ils doivent maintenant se rendre au pays de Galles pour le revanche face aux Dragons
The Wolves pack had as much bite as the arctic weather in Bucharest but now Newport Gwent Dragons are eying the first of two wins they believe will clinch a quarter-final spot.
Lyn Jones’ side dodged a potential banana skin in Bucharest with a 37-10 victory.
The bonus-point win left them just three points behind Pool 3 leaders Newcastle Falcons and targeting a place in the knock-out stages of Europe for only the second time.
“We want to win our group and want to go through to the quarters in our own right,” said director or rugby Jones.
“We are very confident that we can build on the win in Bucharest and win the return game as well as beating Newcastle and Stade Francais.
“They are three games well within our reach and winning with such a strong performance in Bucharest bodes well. It’s critical that we get another bonus-point win on Friday because we are playing towards rounds five and six.”
The Romanians threatened to wreck Newport’s ambitions when they raced into an early 10-0 lead at the Ghencea Stadium before skipper Andrew Coombs got his side back on track with two tries.
“We were very pleased with the performance and the result. It was -1 degrees, very wet, very muddy and those games can be as hard or as simple as you want to make them,” said Jones. “It was a job well done, ten out of ten for our players.”
Bucharest may have one of the smallest budgets in the European Challenge Cup and are still seeking a first win at the bottom of a highly competitive pool.
But Lynn Howell’s side will be desperate to retain their proud record of having won at least one game in each of their previous ten European campaigns.
There is already a huge amount riding on this Round 3 fixture after Newport Gwent Dragons and Bordeaux-Begles both lost to Bath in the opening two weekends of continental competition. - 04/12/2013 17:00
Newport Gwent Dragons seized back control of European Challenge Cup pool three with an 11-try, 69-17 demolition of Bucharest Wolves.
Returning Wales full-back Tom Prydie bagged a hat-trick of tries against the assembled Romanian side, who fought hard for three scores of their own.
The Rodney Parade region had a bonus-point in the bag before half-time thanks to tries from Nic Cudd, Ross Wardle, Hallam Amos, Jonathan Evans and Prydie. And they continued the trend in the second period with another five tries to go one point clear of Newcastle Falcons, who they face in the next round of European action.
It was the Wolves who drew first blood after just eight minutes.
The Dragons only had themselves to blame as they conceded a cheap turnover on the half-way line before outside-half Florin Vlaicu pinned them back them back to within five metres of their line with a clever cross-field kick.
Lyn Jones’ men secured the resulting lineout, but scrum-half Jonathan Evans had his kick charged down and Mototolea rose highest in-goal to to score, with Vlaicu adding the conversion. But the hosts hit back immediately, Jason Tovey got his back-line moving before Cudd squirmed through the scrambling defence.
The early scare breathed life into the Dragons and they took the lead moments later. Lewis Evans shipped a neat offload to allow Tovey to give Wardle an easy run-in at the corner. Geraint Rhys Jones converted to make it 12-7.
The floodgates opened after that and Hallam Amos was next to finish a sweeping cross-field move, before Jonathan Evans broke-free from the defence on halfway and scurried under the posts to secure the winning bonus-point.
Prydie added a quick-fire double before the half-time whistle as the hosts found space out-wide to give the Rodney Parade region a 38-7 lead. They were well on their way to breaking the record for their largest margin of victory, which they set at Rodney Parade against Bucharest back in 2006. And their bid was boosted when former Wales hooker T. Rhys Thomas was shunted over from close-range after he found James Thomas at a lineout.
And they were not done there. The pack of Wolves split under heavy pressure from the free-flowing Dragons and Prydie found a pocket of space to slip through for his hat-trick score. But their was life in the old dog yet. Replacement scrum-half Florin Surugiu kicked ahead from 50 metres out and collected to give Bucharest their second try of the night.
Parity was restored moments later when Andrew Coombs latched onto Luc Jones’ pop pass to crash over at the corner and give the Dragons a 57-12 advantage.
Ionut Botezatu got a third score for the Wolves, but Geraint Rhys Jones and and Luc Jones put the gloss on the win with two late scores to claim a 69-17 victory.
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