Six-try Dragons cruise past Munster at Parade in Celtic Cup

The region had their bonus point in the bag inside the first quarter thanks to tries by centre Connor Edwards, wing James McCarthy, loosehead Josh Reynolds and tighthead Luke Yendle.

The Dragons led 24-3 at the break and piled the pain on the Irish youngsters with scores by rapid wing Rio Dyer and scrum-half Dan Babos.

It was the perfect response to being edged out 24-17 by Connacht in Galway in opening weekend, setting them up perfectly for next Saturday’s trip to the capital to face Cardiff Blues.

Heavy traffic in Newport – shock, horror – meant Munster were late arriving and their chances had gone not long after they got off the bus.

Dragons coach Luke Narraway had been pleased with the work with ball in hand against Connacht but had stressed his side needed to improve in the tight.

To that end he would have been pleased to see his pack bolstered with the inclusion of senior forwards James Benjamin, Huw Taylor and Joe Davies.

They played their part in helping ensure the Dragons had the intensity up front to match their endeavour behind.

Munster made the sharper start to hammer away in the 22 before settling for a penalty from fly-half Ben Healy.

But the hosts responded perfectly with Jacob Botica jinking through and giving centre Edwards a simple try, the fly-half then adding the conversion.

Botica then played a leading role in the build-up to the second in the 10th minute, finding flanker James Benjamin with a nice flat pass in midfield before the ball was worked to the left for Dyer to put over his fellow wing McCarthy (pictured), a try the Ireland Under-20s international enjoyed after returning to the Dragons from Munster's academy in the summer.

There was 13 minutes on the clock when the third was chalked up with Dyer once again prominent with a powerful run off his flank, setting up play in the 22 for loosehead Reynolds to dart over from a ruck.

His fellow prop was in on the act after 16 minutes after Munster couldn’t cope with Benjamin’s power nor his skill, the Wales Sevens international’s offload out of the back of the hand working the Dragons into the 22 where tighthead Yendle powered over.

Botica converted for a 24-3 lead but the game then got a little loose with Munster unable to exploit the indiscipline of their hosts and there was no more scoring before the break.

The Dragons stretched their lead with a well-deserved try by Dyer nine minutes after the restart, the Wales Sevens speedster given a run-in after nice hands by impressive centre Aneurin Owen and lively full-back Carwyn Penny.

A cracker followed with Penny cutting through and putting a peach of a grubber through for McCarthy, whose offload to avoid going into touch found scrum-half Dan Babos.

The Dragons had been lucky to avoid yellow after racking up the penalties but replacement flanker Ben Fry paid the price for others' indiscretions shortly after coming on.

Munster made their numerical advantage count with a well-worked try down the left for full-back Rob Heddernan, converted by Healy in what turned out to be the final score of the evening.

Dragons XV: C Penny, R Dyer, C Edwards, A Owen, J McCarthy, J Botica, D Babos; J Reynolds, E Shipp, L Yendle, J Davies, M Williams, B Roach (captain), J Benjamin, H Taylor. Replacements: W Griffiths, J Cosgrove, G Harris, E Scragg, B Fry, D Buckland, E Lloyd, O Jenkins.

Scorers: tries – C Edwards, J McCarthy, J Reynolds, L Yendle, R Dyer, D Babos; conversions – J Botica (3)