{"id":701057,"date":"2026-01-17T01:18:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/701057\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T01:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:18:14","slug":"wales-wings-double-moves-dragons-to-brink-of-european-knockouts-in-convincing-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/701057\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales wing’s double moves Dragons to brink of European knockouts in convincing win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Men of Gwent secured a 35-12 win at Rodney Parade to keep their Challenge Cup knockout hope alive<\/p>\n

Dragons players celebrate with Rio Dyer after his try against Newcastle(Image: Dylan Thomas\/Huw Evans Agency)<\/p>\n

Two tries from Wales wing Rio Dyer moved the Dragons to within touching distance of a European knockout place in a 35-12 win over Newcastle Red Bulls at Rodney Parade on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Filo Tiatia’s side moved up to third in Pool 2 of the Challenge Cup after the win, with the top four qualifying for the round of 16. However, the two sides directly behind them – Perpignan and the Lions – face each other on Saturday evening, with it mathematically possible both could move past the Dragons in the table.<\/p>\n

However, that would require a draw between the two teams, with both needing to score four tries each – meaning the Dragons’ wait won’t be as anxious as it might have.<\/p>\n

After last week’s hammering to Benetton in Italy, the Dragons went into their final pool match knowing qualification wasn’t in their hands.<\/p>\n

But two tries from the in-form Dyer – who will be challenging for a starting spot in Steve Tandy’s Wales team come the Six Nations<\/a> – helped them on the way to a bonus point victory that has put them within touching distance of a first Challenge Cup knockout place since 2023.<\/p>\n

Bar a madcap few minutes before half-time where the Dragons managed to throw away a hard-fought lead, the Dragons were well worth their win – with a convincing second-half performance putting Newcastle to the sword.<\/p>\n

The early exchanges had seen the Dragons’ maul cause the Gallagher Prem side plenty of problems, while David Richards looked lively coming off his wing.<\/p>\n

However, despite the early pressure, any reward on the scoreboard wasn’t forthcoming as a few errors stopped them from making more of those attacking forays.<\/p>\n

As the first-half wore on, things became a little scrappier as Newcastle wrestled back a foothold – with a scoreless first 40 minutes looking a distinct possibility.<\/p>\n

However, just after the half-hour mark, in-form Wales wing Dyer broke the deadlock – scything through the Newcastle defence from Aneurin Owen’s inside pass.<\/p>\n

However, the Dragons’ hopes of a half-time lead evaporated after a few minutes of self-inflicted misery.<\/p>\n

First, a forced pass was put down by Dyer – with Newcastle wing Alex Hearle breaking away to set up an try from nothing for scrum-half Simon Benitez Cruz.<\/p>\n

However, if that try was gifted to the visitors, then the second moments later was wrapped up with a bow.<\/p>\n

Having won a turnover from the kick-off, scrum-half Che Hope’s rushed cross-field kick only found Christian Wade – with the winger having the pace to race 80 metres untouched.<\/p>\n

Angus O’Brien had the chance to reduce the deficit on the stroke of half-time, but his penalty was wide of the mark.<\/p>\n

Wales hooker Coghlan looked to have drawn the sides level four minutes after the restart following a smartly-worked lineout that saw him canter down the left wing.<\/p>\n

However, a TMO review showed Wade and opposite number George McGuigan did just enough to get Coghlan into touch before he could ground it.<\/p>\n

Moments later, the away side were reduced to 14 men after Jamie Hodgson caught centre Owen with a high tackle, with the second-row shown a yellow card.<\/p>\n

The Dragons’ capitalised almost immediately, turning back to their impressive maul to rumble over – with Coghlan being rewarded this time.<\/p>\n

O’Brien’s superb touchline conversion gave the Dragons a slender lead.<\/p>\n

Looking to make the most of their numerical advantage, replacement Rodrigo Martinez almost made an immediate impact for the Dragons after coming on.<\/p>\n

However, the loosehead was held up over the line.<\/p>\n

The Men of Gwent wouldn’t be denied, with lovely work from centre Fine Inisi giving Dyer enough space to once again leave Newcastle defenders in his wake for a superb second score.<\/p>\n

As the Dragons looked to kill the game off, Newcastle were once again shown a yellow card – with replacement Reuben Parsons sent to the bin after a lineout infringement.<\/p>\n

Once again, Tiatia’s side wasted little time – with another powerful driving lineout earning them a penalty try and the bonus point.<\/p>\n

The dying moments saw the Dragons add a fifth, with the lively Richards getting in on the action to finish off a cross-field kick from player of the match O’Brien.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Men of Gwent secured a 35-12 win at Rodney Parade to keep their Challenge Cup knockout hope…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[748,15031,207754,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-701057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dragons","10":"tag-european-challenge-cup","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115907808907967813","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}