Dragons roar past Leinster

Newport Gwent Dragons buried Leinster under a flurry of first-half tries to clinch a 30-14 win and move up to fourth place in the Magners League.

The Dragons secured a bonus point inside 33 minutes at Rodney Parade when Richard Fussell became the fourth home player to breach the European champions' defence.

By that stage Aled Brew, James Arlidge and Wayne Evans had already crossed in a one-sided opening half that ended with a 24-6 scoreline

Leinster did manage a late try through Simon Keogh but it was no more than a consolation as Michael Cheika's much-changed side were well beaten.

Early try

It took the Dragons just five minutes to break the deadlock when winger Brew finished off some good work by Gavin Thomas, Tom Riley and Jason Tovey.

Leinster got on the board in the 13th minute with a penalty from Fergus McFadden before Arlidge caught them cold with a quick tap-penalty to get over on the right.

Although Ian McKinley's drop goal briefly closed the deficit the Dragons soon scored again, the pack working hard to open up space for scrum-half Evans to dart over.

A fourth try should have come inside the half-hour mark but centre Riley failed to hang onto the line with the ball at his mercy.

Brief respite

However, it was only a brief respite for Leinster as Fussell touched down in the left corner, the score being awarded by television match official Neil Ballard.

Arlidge landed his second conversion to make it a 19-point gap at the break and went on to slot over a penalty in the second half to finish with a personal haul of 12 points.

Full-back Tovey also landed three points in a low-key second half, mainly due to both coaches making plenty of changes.

McFadden's second penalty looked like being Leinster's only points after the interval before winger Keogh managed to get over on the right, giving the Irish region something to cheer about at the end of a tough 80 minutes.