Newport Gwent Dragons 21 Connacht 16: Magnificent defence downs Guinness Pro12 champions at Rodney Parade

Wing Ashton Hewitt scored two superb tries but it was the Dragons’ work without the ball that secured the spoils in the face of almost constant pressure in the second half.

They tackled and tackled until they dropped, each and every one of the players emptying the tank to deny a late fightback from the champions in a breathless finale.

The Dragons now spend a two-week break for the Anglo-Welsh Cup above Connacht in ninth in the table.

The Dragons headed into the game on the back of away frustrations at Enisei and the Ospreys but had spent the week with collective memory loss, preferring to take confidence from their fantastic five-try win against Brive the last time they had been in Newport.

And they are clearly a different beast in NP19 – they repeated their exploits against the French side by defending with tenacity and showing enterprise with ball in hand.

They also engaged their brains and two drop goals by Angus O’Brien, rewarding hard carrying on both occasions, would have had backs coach Shaun Connor punching the air.

In fact, the former fly-half would have been delighted with his young number 10, who showed he will be up to the task in the absence of injured teammates Nick Macleod and Dorian Jones by running the show masterfully.

But he was just one of a number of strong performers on what was the Dragons’ best night in the league since Leinster were beaten in January; the tackle counts of centre Jack Dixon and flanker Ollie Griffiths were sky high.

With no cameras present, Irish official George Clancy was flying solo without a TMO and the crowd were deprived of an accurate game clock – a farcical situation that blights the Pro12.

But Connacht were out of the blocks sharply from the moment the referee started his stopwatch with Bundee Aki, who hasn’t hit the standards of his award-winning 2015/16 because of injury, to the fore in an energetic and enterprising opening.

However, the Dragons held firm and gradually worked their way into the game before striking first with a sumptuous counter-attack score.

The visitors’ lineout was faltering and a loose ball was snaffled by South African scrum-half Sarel Pretorius, who sniped and offloaded to Ollie Griffiths.

The openside then set the backs in motion and the ball was worked to the opposite flank via Angus O’Brien, Jack Dixon and Sam Beard for wing Ashton Hewitt to finish impressively past fellow speedster Niyi Adeolokun.

O’Brien added the extras and the Dragons, with number eight Ed Jackson to the fore with some hard carrying, enjoyed a purple patch that saw them stretch 10-0 ahead through their fly-half’s right boot on 18 minutes.

However, a mind-numbing offside penalty by lock Rynard Landman allowed Connacht to swiftly strike back to 10-3 through fly-half Jack Carty, the man the South African caught with his elbow when red-carded in the meeting between the sides two seasons ago.

To Clancy’s credit, the game was allowed to flow with both teams keen to play expansively and having their promising moments with ball in hand.

Yet it was some pleasingly savvy, pragmatic play that produced the next score with a jackal penalty by Dixon, followed by a lineout drive, pick and gos by the pack then an O’Brien drop goal.

But those three smart points were swiftly cancelled out by Carty and it remained 13-6 as they headed to the changing rooms after O’Brien struck the right post with a penalty won at the scrum.

The Dragons would have been content with their exploits attacking the North Terrace after a half in which they had the edge at the set piece, defended tenaciously and enjoyed strong performances from the 8-9-10-12 spine of their team in Jackson, Pretorius, O’Brien and Dixon.

They would have been wary of a Connacht side who had caused plenty of problems themselves with ball in hand, with the dangerous Aki keeping the defence honest and freeing up space out wide.

And it was the champions that started strongly after the resumption... yet it was the Dragons that struck after soaking up the pressure.

Lovely handling set them on the attack down the left wing and that man Hewitt showed serious pace to win the race to a lovely grubber by centre Sam Beard.

The tricky conversion was missed by O’Brien but he produced a second sweet drop goal to make it 21-6 after some clever close-range carrying.

Connacht had to settle for three points from a spell in the 22 on the hour to cut the gap back to 12 points and the Dragons had to hold their nerve.

The champions were throwing everything at the Dragons, who were defending with increasing anxiety but wonderful character as the clock ticked slowly.

However, the pressure paid off when Adeolokun dashed over from a neat offload with Carty’s conversion making it 21-16 with 10 minutes left.

Thankfully that was the final score, but it took herculean defence to ensure that was the case.

Dragons: T Prydie, P Howard, S Beard (A Warren 60), J Dixon, A Hewitt, A O’Brien (GR Jones 70), S Pretorius (T Knoyle 67), P Price (S Hobbs 53), R Thomas, B Harris (L Fairbrother 63), N Crosswell, R Landman (M Screech 63), L Evans (captain, N Cudd 50), O Griffiths, E Jackson.

Scorers: tries – A Hewitt (2); conversion – A O’Brien; penalty – A O’Brien; drop goals – A O’Brien (2)

Connacht: T O’Halloran, N Adeolokun, B Aki, P Robb (C Kelleher 60), S Ili, J Carty (S O’Leary 78), C Blade, JP Cooney, S Delahunt (D Heffernan 50), C Carey, Q Roux, A Browne (J Cannon 3), E McKeon, J Heenan, J Muldoon (captain).

Scorer: try – N Adeolokun; conversion – J Carty; penalties – J Carty (3)

Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)

Attendance: 4,522

Argus star man: Ollie Griffiths