Pro14: Ospreys 28-14 Dragons

Ospreys ended their seven-match losing streak with a bonus-point Pro14 win over Dragons in Swansea.

Dan Biggar and Sam Parry crossed in the first half for Ospreys in the face of fierce Dragons defence, who claimed a try of their own through Leon Brown.

Elliott Dee added a second Dragons try, converted by Gavin Henson on the fly-half's return to the Liberty Stadium.

But as Dragons tired Ospreys turned the screw and Brendon Leonard and Ma'afu Fia tries claimed all five points.

Most of the headlines leading into this match had been about Wales' autumn squad, with Dragons tight-head prop Brown, 20, and Ospreys flanker Sam Cross, 25, earning first call-ups.

Cross was one of the bigger surprises, given the 2016 Rio Olympics Sevens silver medallist had not even started a Pro14 game for his region.

But Ospreys remedied that for this derby as Justin Tipuric was still sidelined, with Cross taking the seven shirt as he had for his full debut last week in the 36-34 defeat at Saracens in the European Champions Cup.

Fittingly there was an air of youthful exuberance in the early stages in Swansea, with both sides eager to put width on the ball.

Ospreys flanker Sam Cross and his tackler Leon Brown, the Dragons prop, were surprise Wales call-ups this week

Even some of the old campaigners caught the mood, with Ospreys skipper Alun Wyn Jones catching the eye as the Wales and British and Irish Lions lock helped link a length-of-the-field counter attack that finally stalled in the visitors' 22.

Dragons fly-half Henson also belied his 35 years, showing the vision and distribution skills that once made him a favourite in an Ospreys shirt.

His opposite number, Biggar, had sung Henson's praises prior to the match, but showed little mercy when he took on his predecessor for the opening score.

With players packed onto the open side Biggar switched the attack left as he picked up from a ruck, a faint shimmy giving him enough of a head start to beat Henson to the line for an unconverted try despite a last-ditch tackle.

Dragons' cause had not been helped by losing James Thomas and Tyler Morgan to early injuries, with centre Morgan's ankle injury likely to be a concern for watching Wales coach Warren Gatland ahead of their autumn opener with Australia on 11 November.

The visitors shrugged off their early problems to hit back, when Ashton Hewitt and Hallam Amos took them into the 22 before Brown barged over from close range.

Henson converted to make it 7-5 to Dragons but the lead was short-lived, as Ospreys hooker Sam Parry popped up on the right wing to take Keelan Giles' pass and score.

Biggar was wide with the tricky conversion but added a penalty for a 13-7 half-time score, although Henson did miss a long-range effort on the whistle that would have halved the lead.

Prop Leon Brown squeezes through for Dragons' opening try

Wales fly-half Biggar added a second penalty soon after the restart, but Dragons replied when they opted for an attacking line-out and Dee dived over for a converted try from the resulting rolling maul.

It was a period of the match where hookers took centre stage, as just before his opposite number's try Scott Baldwin had taken the field for the first time since the Osprey had his hand bitten by a lion in South Africa.

The match was paused briefly to allow Giles to be carried off with a leg injury, sustained in a collision with Hewitt as the rival wings chased a loose ball.

But when the action restarted, Ospreys added a third try when replacement scrum-half Leonard burrowed his way into a driving maul to flop over.

Dragons had mounted a fine defensive effort up until then to stay in touch, but the effort had taken its toll and a fourth Ospreys try followed when Fia went over after a series of short-range drives.

Biggar nailed the conversion, his first two pointer of the night, to give Ospreys a 28-14 lead that allowed them to seal a much-needed victory.

Ospreys coach Steve Tandy: "We've been better in the last three games, but in fairness to the Dragons they came out and were really physical and defended pretty well.

"We were pretty patched up, haven't done a lot of training this week but we ground it out and got a bonus-point win.

"There's been a lot of emotional and physical energy expended over the last couple of weeks but it was very important that we got that win."

Dragons coach Bernard Jackman: "We could have got a losing bonus point but credit to the players, a young team, showed how brave they were at the end to go chasing that.

"But for me the kicking game was really poor, the execution of the kicks just let Ospreys come back at us time and time again.

"It was something we worked hard on the past three weeks but obviously we've got to spend more time on it."

Teams:

Ospreys: Sam Davies; Keelan Giles, Ashley Beck, Owen Watkin, Dan Evans; Dan Biggar, Tom Habberfield; Nicky Smith, Sam Parry, Dmitri Arhip, Bradley Davies, Alun Wyn Jones (capt), Olly Cracknell, Sam Cross, James King.

Replacements: Scott Baldwin, Paul James, Ma'afu Fia, Adam Beard, Rob McCusker, Brendon Leonard, James Hook, Cory Allen.

Dragons: Hallam Amos; Ashton Hewitt, Tyler Morgan, Jack Dixon, Jared Rosser; Gavin Henson, Sarel Pretorius; Brok Harris, Elliot Dee, Leon Brown, Joe Davies, Cory Hill (capt), James Thomas, James Benjamin, Lewis Evans.

Replacements: Gerard Ellis, Thomas Davies, Lloyd Fairbrother, Rynard Landman, Aaron Wainwright, Charlie Davies, Angus O'Brien, Pat Howard.

Referee: Ian Davies (WRU)

Assistant referees: Adam Jones, Dewi Phillips (WRU)

TMO: Jon Mason (WRU)