Gloucester (12) 25
Tries: Vainikolo 2, Lawson, Balshaw Con: Barkley Pen: Barkley

Newport-Gwent Dragons (12) 20
Tries: Fussell, Webb, Tovey Con: Connor Pen: Connor

Vainikolo had too much pace and power for the Dragons

Gloucester went clear at the top of Group A in the EDF Energy Cup courtesy of a bonus-point win over the Dragons.

Lesley Vainikolo's try gave Gloucester the lead but Newport went in front as Richard Fussell and Grant Webb crossed.

Scott Lawson's try made it 12-12 at half-time before Shaun Connor edged the visitors back in front with a penalty.

But two tries in three minutes, from Vainikolo and Iain Balshaw, and an Olly Barkley penalty saw Gloucester to victory despite Jason Tovey's late try.

Gloucester boss Dean Ryan:
"These EDFs are fraught, with the amount of changes you have got to your side, and you put that on top of some mistakes that we are repeating, and we lack cohesion.

"We had similar mistakes last week and it makes some things we did well look rather shaky.

"The Dragons worked very hard and their kicking game in the first half never gave us any field position. You have to give them credit and it took us a long time to get going, slightly longer than we hoped."

Dragons boss Paul Turner:
"We were at the stage today that, if you are going to win at Kingsholm, it was there for us. It was on the table but we were too loose and too soft.

"I'm pretty disappointed at the way it went from us very quickly. We planned all week about areas we wanted to play against Gloucester and you can see that from our tries.

"I'm just generally cheesed off. Being here is a great place to come and parade your skills and many of our side did that today. I don't think Gloucester actually won it today, I think we lost it."

Gloucester: Balshaw; Foster, Tindall, Barkley, Vainikolo; Walker, R Lawson; Dickinson, S Lawson, Nieto, Eustace, Bortolami, Buxton, Hazell, Strokosch.

Replacements: Adams for Walker (58), Lewis for R Lawson (28), Satala for Dickinson (66), Titterrell for S. Lawson (53), Forster for Nieto (41).

Not Used: Williams, Roberts.

Sin Bin: Satala (71).

Newport-Gwent D'gons: Dolman; Selley, Gomer-Davies, Smith, Fussell; Connor, W Evans, Black, S Jones, R Thomas, A Jones, Hall, Lydiatt, Parks, Webb.

Replacements: Tovey for Gomer-Davies (22), Isaacs for W Evans (62), Maule for Black (73), Willis for S Jones (58), Murphy for A Jones (62), Ringer for Parks (52), Bearman for Webb (58).

Sin Bin: Black (61).

Att: 8,057

Ref: Nigel Owens (WRFU).

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