Wales hopeful’s late red card saves Connacht’s blushes in crucial win over Dragons

John Porch in action for Connacht.
Connacht survived an almighty scare at the Dragons as they escaped Rodney Parade with a 34-27 win in a high-scoring United Rugby Championship clash on Saturday.
The bonus-point victory rockets the Irish province up to sixth spot in the standings, with a red card for Wales international Ben Carter helping the visitors secure the five points.
Dylan Tierney-Martin scored soon after Carter’s 69th minute sending off to move Connacht into the lead and they would see out the game to pick up a priceless victory.
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Shamus Hurley-Langton, Finlay Bealham, John Porch and Dave Heffernan also crossed on the night, with JJ Hanrahan converting two and adding a penalty. Cathal Forde also kicked a conversion.
Steff Hughes, Rhodri Williams and Rio Dyer scored Dragons‘ tries, with Cai Evans converting all three and adding a penalty.
Wales international hooker Elliot Dee led out Dragons to celebrate his 150th appearance for the region, but his side soon fell behind to a third-minute try.
Two kicking errors from Rhodri Williams gifted Connacht a platform in the home 22 from where the forwards exerted pressure for Hurley-Langton to force his way over.
Dragons’ response was almost immediate when from a pre-planned move, captain Hughes sailed through a huge gap in the Connacht defence for an excellent individual try.
The visitors were hit by two injury blows in the first 15 minutes with forwards Denis Buckley and Cian Prendergast both departing, but they overcame these setbacks to regain the lead.
Matt Devine made a dart to put Dragons on the back foot, with Bealham up in support to crash over.
Worse was to follow for the hosts as they soon conceded a third try. The concession of frequent penalties gave Connacht easy territory and they capitalised when a long pass from Bundee Aki provided Porch with an easy walk-in.
Wales coach mobbed by players after breaking down at full-time in clutch win
Dragons badly needed a reply before the interval to keep in contention and they got one when Williams ran strongly to score, with a touchline conversion from Evans leaving them 19-14 behind at half-time.
Dragons star Aaron Wainwright failed to return for the restart and within minutes Dee was sin binned for persistent team infringements.
It immediately proved costly as Heffernan collected the bonus-point try by finishing off a driving line-out.
Evans reduced the arrears with a penalty and, with Dee still in the sin bin, they drew level when Dyer won the race to touch down a kick ahead from Jordan Williams.
Hanrahan and Evans exchanged simple penalties before the Connacht fly-half was carried off the pitch on a stretcher with a leg injury, but the Irish side finished the stronger with a try from Tierney-Martin securing victory, this after Carter’s red card for a high tackle.
The teams
Dragons: 15 Jordan Williams, 14 Rio Dyer, 13 Steff Hughes (c), 12 Aneurin Owen, 11 Ewan Rosser, 10 Cai Evans, 9 Rhodri Williams, 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Taine Basham, 6 Harri Keddie, 5 Matthew Screech, 4 Ben Carter, 3 Chris Coleman, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Rhodri Jones
Replacements: 16 James Benjamin, 17 Rodrigo Martinez, 18 Luke Yendle, 19 George Nott, 20 Sean Lonsdale, 21 Che Hope, 22 Will Reed, 23 Joe Westwood
Connacht: 15 Tiernan O’Halloran, 14 Shane Jennings, 13 Tom Farrell, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 John Porch, 10 JJ Hanrahan, 9 Matthew Devine, 8 Cian Prendergast, 7 Conor Oliver, 6 Shamus Hurley-Langton, 5 Gavin Thornbury, 4 Joe Joyce, 3 Finlay Bealham, 2 Dave Heffernan, 1 Denis Buckley
Replacements: 16 Dylan Tierney-Martin, 17 Peter Dooley, 18 Sam Illo, 19 Oisín Dowling, 20 Jarrad Butler, 21 Caolin Blade, 22 Cathal Forde, 23 Paul Boyle
Referee: Federico Vedovelli (FIR)
Assistant Referees: Ben Breakspear (WRU), Gareth Newman (WRU)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)
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