United Rugby Championship: Dragons 20-22 Connacht - Late Dragons drop goal hits posts

Connacht overcame a resilient Dragons, who had 14 men for 50 minutes, to earn a late United Rugby Championship win.

Aaron Wainwright crossed early on for the hosts but the score was quickly level through Cian Prendergast's try.

The evening was made difficult for the Welsh region when Matthew Screech was sent off for a high tackle, though Jarred Rosser's try did make it 20-10.

Connacht fought back, Jarrad Butler and Dave Heffernan scoring, before Sam Davies' late drop goal hit the post.

It was always going to be a tough evening for the Dragons, who started the day one place off the bottom of the URC table while Connacht were seeking a third consecutive victory.

Connacht started on the front foot as the Dragons spent the opening 10 minutes camped within their own 22.

The Welsh region were allowed to clear their lines after an infringement at the scrum, but Connacht wing Shayne Bolton returned the ball to within a couple metres of the Dragons' try-line after skipping out of three tackles.

The ball was recycled to Prendergast but the flanker could not gather the pass when a metre out and instead knocked it forward.

Connacht did score first though a Jack Carty penalty before the Dragons mustered up their first attack of note.

The returning Wales internationals were at the heart of the attack, first Bradley Roberts broke through two tackles before offloading brilliantly to Ashton Hewitt.

And from the next phase Rhodri Williams passed wide to Wainwright who crossed to score the game's first try.

Aaron Wainwright (left) was one of three Dragons starters released from Wales' Six Nations camp

The visitors hit straight back, this time Prendergast was not to be denied despite the attention of two Dragons defenders after breaking through a hole in the defence.

Will Reed's penalty from close to halfway levelled the score at 10-10 with 25 minutes on the clock but things quickly turned bad for the Welsh region.

First Max Clark was sin-binned for repeated defensive penalties, before referee Andrea Piardi wanted to check a high tackle with the television match official (TMO).

After a lengthy discussion the officials determined there was no mitigation for Screech's tackle on Conor Oliver and the Dragons lock was sent off.

Connacht almost exploited the two-man advantage immediately, dominating the five-metre scrum, but Paul Boyle was held up from scoring what looked a certain try.

Despite being a man short it was Dragons who scored first in the second half, Rosser intercepted a risky pass from David Hawkshaw and raced 80m in to score.

Now trailing 20-10, Connacht needed a response and got it when a Dragons scrum on their own five-metre line was hurled backwards and replacement number eight Jarrad Butler jumped on the ball and crossed.

And it was another replacement who gave the Irish province the lead, Heffernan touching down after a powerful drive involving Niall Murray and Caolin Blade.

Dragons were handed a route back into the game when Bolton took out Angus O'Brien in the air and shown a yellow card with just under 15 minutes to play.

A 50-22 from O'Brien set up the platform to attack, and a number of Dragons players came close to crossing before Hewitt found a small gap, but he was held up by two Connacht defenders.

Having missed a penalty earlier in the second half, replacement fly-half Sam Davies almost made amends with a 77th minute drop goal but his effort bounced back off the post.

Victory for Connacht keeps them eighth in the URC, while Dragons are above only Zebre in the standings.

Dragons: Angus O'Brien, Jared Rosser, Steff Hughes, Max Clark, Ashton Hewitt; Will Reed, Rhodri Williams (c); Rhodri Jones, Bradley Roberts, Leon Brown, Matthew Screech, Ben Carter, Aaron Wainwright, Taine Basham, Ross Moriarty

Replacements: Elliot Dee, Aki Seiuli, Lloyd Fairbrother, George Nott, Harrison Keddie, Lewis Jones, Sam Davies, Jordan Williams

Connacht: Tiernan O'Halloran; Shayne Bolton, Tom Farrell, Cathal Forde; John Porch; Jack Carty (capt), Caolin Blade; Denis Buckley, Dylan Tierney-Martin, Jack Aungier, Josh Murphy, Niall Murray, Cian Prendergast, Conor Oliver, Paul Boyle.

Replacements: Dave Heffernan, Peter Dooley, Sam Illo, Oisin Dowling, Jarrad Butler, Colm Reilly, David Hawkshaw, Shane Jennings.

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)

Assistant referees: Jason Bessant & Mark Butcher (WRU)

TMO: Stefano Roscini (FIR)