No pain, no gain

Five days after beating their nearest Welsh rivals the Ospreys, the Dragons gained their first bonus point victory of the season when they defeated Connacht 27-19 at Rodney Parade last night.

It puts them three points ahead of the Ospreys, who don't play this weekend but get four points, and they trail Cardiff Blues, who face a tricky game at Borders on Sunday, by only one point.

"We've made a big step forward. We couldn't have done more than win 5-0," said Turner referring to his team's bonus and Connacht's lack of one.

"It's the first time this season we've scored four tries (one of them was a penalty try) and I'm happy with that, but I'm getting greyer by the minute."

Turner meant the way the Dragons could have won the match well before the end, but didn't actually clinch it until the last five minutes.

In fact, he was quite harsh on some players. "There were a few individuals who had a shocking first half," he said.

"We don't seem to have any forwards who can really take us on, we played side to side which also played into Connacht's hands.

"We should have won the game three times over and with a little more composure we would have.

"When we scrummaged like we did we should have got into their 22 far more and we should have finished them off much earlier, but we didn't do it.

"We gifted them 13 points, every time we made a mistake they seemed to score. We could and should have won by a lot more.

"But this will give the squad a bit of belief, we've had it tough over Christmas especially with injuries.

"The 8,9,10 axis is not working as it should, but the way Hal Luscombe glided past his opposite number and we scored a try we should have got more from that phase.

Wales coach Mike Ruddock and defence coach Clive Griffiths were both back at Rodney Parade watching the match, and would have been impressed with the form of Luscombe.

Ruddock has brought forward by a day to January 17 the naming of Wales' Six Nations squad.