Dragons (7) 24
Try: M Thomas, R Thomas (2), Williams
Cons: A Thomas (2)

Newcastle survived a brave comeback from Newport Gwent Dragons to secure victory at Kingston Park.

The home side had raced into a 17-0 lead through Steve Jones, Brent Wilson and Toby Flood against 13 men.

But the Dragons rallied and got themselves back into the game through Martyn Thomas and Andy Williams, only to be let down by Aled Thomas' kicking.

Ollie Phillips and John Rudd's gave the hosts a big enough lead to thwart Rhys Thomas' two tries.

It was Aled Thomas who had the chance give the Dragons an early lead but sent his penalty just short to dip under the bar.

And they were punished on 18 minutes when Flood opened the scoring from 30 metres with a penalty after he was held on the ground by Rhys Thomas.

Moments later, Flood was on hand again, this time to get Newcastle's first try.

The home side had forced a turn over and Flood saw a gap inside the Dragon's twenty-two.

He went off his left foot to the right and sent a back of the hand to Jones who was racing behind him and crashed over.

The Dragons then lost Joe Bearman on 25 minutes for preventing release and Newcastle immediately made most of their advantage with another try.

Wilson touched down and Flood converted to make it 17-0.

By now, Newcastle were rampant and Dragons were reduced to 13 men when Andrew Hall became the second player to be yellow-carded inside five minutes, also for preventing release.

But against the run of play, the visitors got themselves back into the game just before the break when Martyn Thomas intercepted Martin Dixon's floating pass.

He raced clear sprinting 70 yards to go under the posts with Matthew Tait trailing behind.

The conversion was easy for Thomas and this gave the Dragons some impetus as they finished the half stronger.

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Thomas could have closed the gap at the end but dragged his penalty across the face of the posts to go in 17-7 behind.

It didn't take long for Newcastle to get themselves further ahead at the re-start with Flood launching a kick over the top towards the corner.

He had picked out back Ollie Phillips who was racing down the right-hand side to collect and dive over. Flood missed the conversion.

That lead was cut soon after as the Dragons went on the attack.

They were first being denied by the television referee, but prop Rhys Thomas made no mistake at the second attempt.

He drive over from two yards from the resulting scrum, but Aled Thomas made it a hat-trick of misses with his conversion attempt.

Flood was replaced by Matthew Tait for Newcastle, but he lasted less than five minutes after being sent to the stands, again for preventing release.

That spurred the Dragons on to keep attacking and they got their reward on 54 minutes.

Newcastle made a mess of their own line-out and scrum-half Andy Williams spun out of a tackle near the posts and forced himself over the line to bring the scores to 22-19 with Thomas's conversion.

Newcastle then rallied put pressure on the Dragons defence, but as they got closer to the line, the visitors somehow managed to clear.

But with 10 minutes to go, they got their fourth try and bonus point.

John Rudd burst through a static Dragons defence and survived a tap tackle from Wayne Evans to go over, with Steve Jones converting.

The Dragons were not finished though and responded immediately. Richard Mustoe was halted at the line, but Rhys Thomas was on hand to finish off and collect a bonus point of their own.

It also earned them a second bonus point for being less than seven points down, but crucially, Aled Thomas missed another conversion leaving the Dragons needing a try in the dying moments which they could not manage.

"We made some good chances but our execution was poor. You really should kill games off like that when you are leading 17-0 and they have two men in the sin bin.

"But you have to give Newport some credit - they would not give up and they are a good side with a huge amount of spirit."

"You have to say we left too much on the table in the first half and got punished for it. We got back into a winning position but made too many errors.

"You cannot give a quality player like Toby Flood that sort of room, and we had two guys in the sin bin and you can't do that."

Newcastle: May, Phillips, M. Tait, Jones, Rudd, Flood, Dickson, McDonnell, Thompson, D. Wilson, Perry, Sorenson, Parling, B. Wilson, Winter.
Replacements: A. Tait for Flood (48), Charlton for Dickson (64), Golding for McDonnell (52), Long for Thompson (52), Woods for Perry (68).
Not Used: Oakes, Visser.
Sin Bin: A. Tait (52).

Newport-Gwent D'gons: M. Thomas, Emerick, Davies, Maule, Mustoe, A. Thomas, A. Williams, Gustafson, Daly, R. Thomas, Hall, Sidoli, Bearman, Charvis, Owen.
Replacements: W. Evans for A. Williams (68), Black for Gustafson (60), Crawford for Daly (60), L. Evans for Hall (60).
Not Used: Corsi, Parks, Sweeney.
Sin Bin: Bearman (25), Hall (29).

Att: 7,406

Ref: James Jones (WRFU).