| Havili'S Try Proves Crucial |
Celtic Warriors |
19 - 12 |
Newport Gwent Dragons |
| Sardis Road Att: 2,100 |
| Referee: Marshall Kilgore |
| Friday 24th October 2003, 19:05 |
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| The Celtic Warriors returned to winning ways with a 19-12 win over local rivals the Newport-Gwent Dragons at Sardis Road |
The only try of a heavyweight battle was scored by Tongan wing three-quarter Aisea Havili.
In a the opeing minutes discipline was missing from both sides. A battle of boots enused and the opening scores came via three Neil Jenkins penalt goals two to his opposite numebr Craig Warlow.
Flanker Ryan Jones showed up well in a number of Warriors' movements but the battle of the boot continued with Warlow putting over a long-distance drop goal to equalise the scores.
The visiting Dragons went down to 14 men for the statutory 10 minutes when former Wales lock Ian Gough was yellow-carded for an offence in the tackle area.
Warriors lost their hooker Matthew Rees with an eye injury and his place was taken by former England Under-21 player Chris Balshen.
Gough returned only to have his place in the sin-bin filled almost immediately by his skipper Andy Marinos, while Jenkins missed two kickable penalties and the interval arrived with the sides locked on 9-9.
Warlow kicked the Dragons into a three-point lead on the resumption but it was Warriors who continued to play most of the rugby.
The try deadlock was broken when Havili took a pass from Alan Chiltern to go over unopposed. Jenkins added the conversion points to put his team back in front, and only a fine tackle from Jamie Ringer prevented Havili from getting a second try shortly afterwards.
Realising that time was running out, the visitors began to throw the ball around but fell offside and Jenkins punished them as he widened the gap between the two sides with a penalty.
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