Waino hails Rodney Parade faithful

Back row Aaron Wainwright has hailed the ‘incredible’ home support at Rodney Parade - after the crowd roared the club to a third straight success on New Year’s Day.

Wainwright celebrated his 100th appearance for the Men of Gwent with a try and all-action player of the match display in the BKT United Rugby Championship victory.

The result made it a hat-trick of home successes for the first time since 2020 – following on from wins over the Ospreys and Oyonnax.

And Wainwright was quick to praise the power of a vocal home crowd.

"The home support has been incredible, and I think that has been reflected within the results,” said the 26-year-old.

"It is about making this place hard to come to and fans definitely play their part in that with how noisy they are and how much they support us.

“We wanted to get the result for them, and we did that. I love playing for this side especially when we put in performances and get results like that.

Dragons next travel to Zebre Parma in the European Challenge Cup a week on Saturday before returning to home soil to face the Sharks on January 21 (kick-off 5.30pm).

The aim will be to make it four wins on the spin in Newport and potentially earn a Rodney Parade tie in the last 16.

"We spoke before the game about being two from two at home so to get a third win at home gives us massive confidence going into the next couple of games,” added Wainwright.

"Boxing Day was not great, it was an embarrassing result but to come out and get a good result against the Scarlets in front of a big home crowd was massive for us.

“We reflected hard after the game against Cardiff and we knew the only way to put that right was to come out and get a result against Scarlets. It gives us confidence going into the next couple of weeks.”