Heineken Cup dream still on for Turner’s troops

Guinness Premiership leaders Bath had scored 16 tries this season, two of them in Toulouse last week, but they could manage only one against the Dragons, whose defence was magnificent.

The Dragons have earned five points from their opening two pool games and after their mighty performance at Bath they can even face French aristocrats Toulouse in a December double header with a degree of confidence.

Wales coach Warren Gatland is short of a blind side flanker for the autumn series and he could do worse than recall veteran Colin Charvis who was superb against Bath while new England supremo Martin Johnson ought to snap up man-of-the-match Joe Bearman because Wales will certainly take him when he qualifies next year.

The Dragons performance was even more impressive considering Charvis and Lewis Evans were both yellow carded – they didn’t even concede a point while either was off.

And Bath’s South African World Cup winning outside half Butch James was content to boot the ball into touch awaiting the final whistle.

Dragons coach Paul Turner was understandably proud of his team.

He said: “We knew we would have to make over 100 tackles and we did that.

“We showed we could muscle up against the best and the commitment was there for all to see.

“No-one gave us a chance, but we knew what we had to do.

“They’re a fine side, but they play from deep and you could sense it might be one of those days.

“The boys threw their bodies on the line, but we couldn’t quite get our game going. It was our best defensive performance since I’ve been here and I was really proud of the players.”

Dragons captain Tom Willis was even disappointed with the result. “We came here to win, so it was pretty disappointing,” he said. “When we fought back I felt it was swinging our way, but we didn’t quite have that attacking edge.

“But we came to this cauldron, this powerhouse of English and European rugby and pushed them all the way.”