RaboDirect PRO12: Dragons too strong for fellow-strugglers Connacht

Dan Parks: his early penalty accounted for all the visitors' points

Tom Prydie: Kicked three penalties for the Dragons

The Dragons claimed just their third RaboDirect PRO12 win of the season with a 14-3 victory over Connacht at Rodney Parade.

Patrick Leach scored the only try of the game just before half-time, while Tom Prydie kicked three penalties for the hosts.

Dan Parks' early penalty nudged Connacht ahead early on but they could not score again.

The Irish province did the double over the Dragons last season, including a well-earned win at Rodney Parade, but never looked likely to repeat the trick when they fell a score behind early in the second half.

The Dragons headed into the game on the back of seven successive defeats, while Connacht - whose captain Gavin Duffy was making his first start of the season - were chasing back-to-back victories for the first time this season.

The Irishmen were adapting better to the awful conditions but it was level-pegging on 25 minutes when Dragons full-back Prydie kicked his first penalty, with Connacht hooker Jason Harris-Wright sin-binned in the process.

And the visitors were under pressure when back row forward Andrew Brown was also yellow-carded.

The Dragons took their chance and had an 8-3 half-time lead when centre Leach slid over in the left hand corner, and they took total command with half an hour left when a brace of Prydie penalties put them 14-3 ahead.

Connacht were given a chance when Dragons captain and flanker Lewis Evans became the third man to be sent to the sin-bin.

But they were far too error-strewn to make their sudden dominance of possession and territory count, with a number of scrums and lineouts close to the Dragons' line going to waste.

The Welsh side defended their line with plenty of commitment until the final whistle, to notch just their third victory of a troubled campaign.

Sky Bet Odds: