NEWPORT Gwent Dragons' miserable away streak in the Guinness Pro12 continued after they were soundly beaten 27-11 by last season's basement outfit Treviso at the Stadio Monigo.

The Dragons never led in the north of Italy and were the recipients of a Treviso backlash after their hosts had been hammered 64-10 by the Ospreys in round three.

Next up for Kingsley Jones' men is a daunting Rodney Parade encounter with title-chasing Glasgow and they could do with a shock victory against the Warriors in what already looks like being a tough season of battling with Treviso and Zebre in the bottom three again.

The Dragons endured a whitewash of 11 away defeats in the league last season as well as a loss to the Scarlets on neutral territory at Principality Stadium.

They hadn't won on the road since their trip to the Stadio Monigo in March 2015 when they also bagged a four-try bonus point. That had been their only success from six visits to Treviso in the league so they knew it was going to be a fierce contest.

Nonetheless, Dragons head coach Kingsley Jones rolled the dice with his selection, making seven changes despite being happy with the performance in defeat to Munster six days earlier.

He brought in centre Adam Warren and flanker Nic Cudd, two regular starters, and gave a first appearance of the season to wing Ashton Hewitt, one of the stars of 2015/16, after his recovery from shoulder surgery.

Charlie Davies started at scrum-half, blindside flanker James Thomas replaced absent skipper Lewis Evans while lock Cory Hill and tighthead Lloyd Fairbrother came in for the expected stern set piece examination by their Italian hosts.

With influential overseas players Sarel Pretorius, Nick Crosswell and Brok Harris sitting out the trip to the Stadio Monigo, it was undoubtedly a gamble by Jones but he hoped it was a calculated one with the management keen to both foster competition for places and maintain freshness through rotation.

With Wales wing Hallam Amos captaining the Dragons for the first time at the age of 21, the visitors were chasing a fast start against hosts who pushed title-chasing Ulster hard for an hour in round two before going down 22-11.

Fly-half Angus O'Brien missed a seventh minute shot at goal and it looked like the visitors would be up against it when Italy international Tommaso Allan banged over a three-pointer and then converted a try by Tommaso Benvenuti after 25 minutes.

However, the Dragons crucially responded swiftly with lock Rynard Landman going over for a try after good work by O'Brien and full-back Carl Meyer.

Trailing 10-5, Jones' side nearly went in front when laying siege to the Treviso line only for the hosts to repel scrum-half Davies and clear their lines but O'Brien did bisect the posts to make cut the deficit to two points at the break.

It took just seven minutes for the Italians to strengthen their grip on the game with Allan converting a try out wide by former Cardiff Blues lock Filo Paulo.

The Dragons needed to once again respond quickly but let another chance inside the Treviso 22 go to waste – the bane of their season so far – and another Allan three-pointer in the final quarter put them on the brink at 20-8.

O'Brien made it a nine-point game in the 66th minute but that was as close as the Dragons got and the final blow came in the 79th minute when lock Marco Fuser barged over with Allan twisting the knife by converting.

Treviso: J Hayward, A Esposito, T Benvenuti, A Sgarbi (captain), L McLean, T Allan, G Bronzini, N Quaglio, O Gega, S Ferrari, M Fuser, F Paulo, F Minto, M Lazzaroni, D Budd. Replacements: L Bigi, A De Marchi, C Traore, F Gerosa, A Steyn, T Tebaldi, I McKinley, D Odiete

Scorers: tries – T Benvenuti, F Paulo, M Fuser; conversions – T Allan (3); penalties – T Allan (2)

Newport Gwent Dragons: C Meyer, A Hewitt, T Morgan, A Warren, H Amos (captain), A O'Brien, C Davies, S Hobbs, R Buckley, L Fairbrother, C Hill, R Landman, J Thomas, N Cudd, E Jackson. Replacements: R Thomas, T Davies, C Mitchell, M Screech, H Keddie, L Jones, S Beard, GR Jones.

Scorers: try – R Landman; penalties – A O'Brien (2)

Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)