Dragons' Euro hopes hit in home defeat by Pau

Rio Dyer scored the second of Dragons' two tries

European Challenge Cup

Dragons (8) 15

Tries: Wainwright, Dyer Con: L Evans Pens: L Evans

Pau (9) 24

Tries: Mondinat, Jooste Con: Desperes Pens: Desperes 4

Dragons face a shootout in South Africa to keep their European hopes alive after stumbling to defeat by Pau in Newport.

Aaron Wainwright and Rio Dyer showed their class with tries.

But Dragons gave a desperately scrappy display between those scores and rarely looked like winning.

Clement Mondinat and Dan Jooste scored second-half tries as Pau did enough to stay out of reach.

The result means Dragons must beat Lions in Johannesburg next Saturday to progress, but also means Ospreys have qualified from Pool 3.

Ospreys face Pau in France, also on Saturday, 18 January, with the chance to secure home advantage in the knockout stages.

The other bonus for Welsh rugby was Elliot Dee emerging unscathed from his full return from injury in front of national team boss Warren Gatland.

Dee made a timely first start of the season 24 hours before Gatland names his Six Nations squad and with fit hookers in short supply.

Dragons also had promising centre Harri Ackerman back for his first regional start since breaking his leg in March, but twice lost Cai Evans in the opening 25 minutes.

Evans, on only his third start of the season, was forced off for a head injury assessment after a late tackle that saw Pau number eight Thibault Hamaonou shown a yellow card.

The Wales full-back returned only to pull up 10 minutes later with what appeared a serious Achilles problem and facing another injury lay-off.

Pau led 9-3 after a dour opening 30 minutes before Wainwright provided a touch of class.

The Wales star was involved three times when Dragons opted to run a penalty and burrowed over from close range for the game's opening try on 38 minutes.

Lloyd Evans missed the conversion and Pau should have extended their 9-8 lead on the stroke of half-time, but wing Gregoire Arfeuil knocked on over the line.

But the visitors dominated the second half and full-back Mondinat finished a rare moment of quality before hooker Jooste burst clear from a line-out drive.

Dragons rallied and Wainwright was held up over the line before Dyer's late consolation score but, by then, the game had gone.

Dragons head coach Filo Tiatia said: "We applied a lot of pressure early on but we kept turning the ball over and letting them off.

"We will have to do a really honest review before South Africa. There were a lot good things from certain individuals but we made too many mistakes.

"We just can't do that against teams in this competition. I feel like a broken record at the moment, talking about growth and learning, but that is where we are at."

Dragons: Cai Evans; Rio Dyer, Joe Westwood, Harri Ackerman, Jared Rosser; Angus O'Brien (capt), Che Hope; Rodrigo Martinez, Elliot Dee, Chris Coleman, Joe Davies, Barny Langton-Cryer, George Young, Taine Basham, Aaron Wainwright.

Replacements: James Benjamin, Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths, Dmitri Arhip, George Nott, Dan Lydiate, Morgan Lloyd, Lloyd Evans, Ewan Rosser

Pau: Clément Mondinat; Theo Attissogbe, Eliott Roudil (capt), Fabien Brau-Boirie, Gregoire Arfeuil; Axel Desperes, Dan Robson; Remi Seneca, Romain Ruffenach, Jon Zabala Arrieta, Hugo Auradou, Jimi Maximin, Mehdi Tlili, Reece Hewat, Thibaut Hamonou.

Sin bin: Hamonou (3)

Replacements: Dan Jooste, Daniel Bibi Biziwu, Harry Williams, Remi Picquette, Loic Credoz, Thomas Souverbie, Quentin Valentino, Jack Maddocks.

Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (SARU)

Assistant referees: Morne Ferreira & Griffin Colby (SARU)

TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU)