Saints 28 - Dragons 3

It's very easy to get disappointed by not getting bonus points.  This was a good win unfortunately undone by some decisions made by the ref (more of which later).  In this case though the lack of a bonus probably means that the Saints are out of the LV Cup.  The set up of the LV is strange.  What matters is how the teams in another pool perform, rather than how you perform.  We could do a lot of damage to the other teams in our pool, but we don't come up against them.  The other pool is being hammered by ours.  So what will happen is the top from our pool will go through and then the top of our competing pool will go through even though they have lost more games.  It's weird.

But, to the ref.  Unfortunately this ref decided to throw yellow cards against the Dragons props.  This may sound like a good thing, but it lead to uncontested scrums.  This is a disaster for us.  Having a man sent off actually helped the Dragons.  Not only does it take away our powerhouse, but it means that the Dragons backs are able to take defensive positions knowing that they won't be going backwards.  How this was the correct decision compared to a penalty try is beyond me.

But, some good play by the team.  Second try for Smyler which is excellent.  TinTin was playing full back and this was the normal mixed bag.  The defining moment of his career may well be when he managed to break through the Dragons defence, outrun them all ..... and then trip over his own feet before getting to the try line. 

Scorers:
Saints - Tries: Smyler, Digger, Clark; Cons: Smyler (2); Pens: Smyler (3)
Dragons - Pen: Jones