United Rugby Championship: Ulster battle past Dragons in tough conditions

Ulster won a wet-weather contest against the Dragons 12-0 to move level on points with Leinster atop the United Rugby Championship.

With their Irish rivals having claimed a bonus-point victory over Ospreys on Saturday, Ulster needed a response and dug in to seal the four points on Sunday.

It was never going to be a high-scoring clash at Rodney Parade due to the conditions, as Ulster crossed only twice through Marcus Rea and John Andrew.

The Dragons, playing with the strong wind, had the better of the early exchanges, with Dan Baker and Harri Keddie making a couple of powerful surges to keep the Ulster defence on their mettle.

Ulster broke out and an error from Dragons full-back Josh Lewis gifted the visitors a five-metre scrum, but after a couple of forward rumbles they knocked on for the pressure to be relieved.

That was as near as either side got to a score in the opening quarter as both struggled to come to terms with the appalling conditions, with both the rain and wind intensifying.

The Dragons then came close to breaking the deadlock when scrum-half Gonzalo Bertranou was just off target with a long-range drop-goal attempt.

Ulster took every opportunity to disrupt the flow of the game by running the clock down with frequent injury stoppages and taking their time to engage at line-outs.

The Dragons suffered an injury setback when lock Joe Davies had to be replaced by Huw Taylor and they looked to have sustained another blow when Doak crashed over.

However, TMO replays showed that the young scrum-half had been held up by the combined efforts of Rio Dyer and Sam Davies.

A minute before the interval, Ulster took the lead with an excellent try. A clean break from James Hume split the defence to send Doak racing for the