Treviso arrived at Rodney Parade in search of only their second win away from Italian soil this season in the RaboDirect PRO12 and looked to be well on their way after a flying start.

But after some poor early kicking from Steffan Jones, the Dragons woke up to record a vital victory to keep their hopes of Heineken Cup rugby alive next season.

Treviso made the perfect start when South African centre Doppies La Grange went over for his first try in Benetton colours since his arrival from the Lions. Alberto Di Bernardo added the conversion to make it 7-0 to the visitors after just six minutes.

Jones, who endured a difficult night from the kicking tee, missed his first kick of the night midway through the half and Treviso made him pay.

Filippo Giusti had barely been on two minutes, replacing Robert Barbieri, when he crashed over for the visitors' second try. Di Bernardo was again on target with the conversion to stretch the lead to 14-0.

Di Bernardo could have stretched the lead further but missed his first shot at goal just before the half-hour, and almost immediately the Dragons responded as Jones hit the target.

Two more missed penalties from Jones meant the Dragons were unable to take advantage of a period of domination just before the half, but Tom Prydie did knock over his first attempt to make it 14-6 at the break.

Jones was off-target again early in the second half, as the Dragons wasted another chance to get back into it.

However they hit back a quarter of an hour into the second half when Jones crossed the whitewash, Prydie's conversion bringing the home side back to within a point.

It got worse for Treviso when Christian Loamanu was sent to the sin bin, but the Dragons could not take advantage.

But as he returned, the Dragons struck again, Prydie this time the man to go over, converting his own try to make it 20-14 to the home side.

Prydie added another penalty as the match entered the closing stages, with the Dragons very much in the ascendancy.