Taine Basham scores two tries in Dragons’ narrow home defeat against Lions

Wales Number 8 Taine Basham scored two tries but that was not enough to prevent the Dragons from slipping to another narrow home defeat as they lost 23-19 to the Lions.

Last Saturday, the Sharks triumphed 33-30 at Rodney Parade and once again, despite Dragons outscoring their opponents by three tries to two, it was another morale-sapping defeat.

Harri Keddie scored Dragons’ opening try with Lloyd Evans converting.

Lions’ response was tries from Jarod Cairns and Quan Horn with two penalties and a conversion from Nico Steyn. Sanele Nohamba added a penalty and a conversion.

Opening

Following a lively opening, Lions took a 10th-minute lead when a break from scrum half Morne van den Berg was the catalyst for Horn to outflank the defence and score.

Dragons’ response was swift as Keddie intercepted Steyn’s telegraphed pass and showed exceptional pace to out-sprint the cover on a 70-metre run to the line.

The visitors then suffered two blows in quick succession. First lock Darrien Landsberg left the field with a back injury before hooker Franco Marais was sin-binned for booting the ball away from a ruck when in an offside position.

Dragons capitalised immediately when Basham finished off a driving line-out before Steyn kicked two penalties in quick succession to give his side a 13-12 interval lead.

Restart

Two minutes after the restart, Dragons regained the lead when Basham crashed over from close range for his second try.

Evans converted but Lions kept in contention with a penalty from replacement Nohamba before Cairns brushed aside a weak tackle from Angus O’Brien to gallop 20 metres to the line.

Nohamba converted to make it 23-19 and leave the game firmly in the balance going into the final quarter.

Dragons replacement Will Reed missed the chance to make it a one-point game by missing an angled 30-metre penalty so Lions were able to hold on for a valuable four points.