Dragons' Ryan Bevington powers forward against Edinburgh

Pro14: Dragons v Edinburgh Dragons (10) 18 Tries: Rosser 2 Cons: Tovey Pens: Tovey 2 Edinburgh (5) 12 Tries: Fife, Graham Cons: Van der Walt

Dragons held on for an 18-12 win over Edinburgh in the Pro14 despite a late fight-back from the visitors.

Jared Rosser scored in either half with Jason Tovey kicking eight points against his former team.

Dougie Fife and Darcy Graham crossed for the Edinburgh tries, one converted by Jaco van der Walt.

Dragons rose off the bottom of Conference B with only a third league win of 2018-19, though coach Bernard Jackman was banned from the ground.

The hosts were under the control of assistant coaches Ceri Jones and Barry Maddocks in the absence of Jackman, serving a stadium ban for comments about referee Ian Davies after defeat by Cardiff Blues in October.

Tovey's penalty was the only score of a cagey opening quarter, but the Dragons were looking dangerous out wide and Jordan Williams' break saw Rosser brush off Henry Pyrgos' tackle to race in from the 22, Tovey's conversion making it 10-0 after 24 minutes.

Edinburgh were stung into life, but turned down a series of penalty shots at goal, while Chris Dean's effort after a scrum-five was ruled out for a double movement in the tackle.

The home defence finally cracked with the clock in the red, and Dean's break saw Fife plunge in at the corner to make it 10-5 at the break.

Another swing in momentum saw Rosser eventually put clear for his second after 54 minutes with Tovey's long pass providing the width for Jordan Williams to deliver his second scoring pass.

Tovey added a penalty, but Edinburgh struck back when Van der Walt provided the break and conversion for Graham's try on 66 minutes although lengthy TMO reviews were needed to confirm the grounding.

Tovey missed a penalty chance to seal the result, and Edinburgh came back with three minutes of forward pressure after the 80-minute mark before a Dragons turnover close to their own line brought home celebrations.

Dragons number eight Ollie Griffiths was man-of-the-match after a storming display in the loose.

Dragons forwards coach Ceri Jones told BBC Sport Wales:

"It was a really good performance based on our defence, I thought Ollie Griffiths was excellent, and I think we can build on this, it was just based on the work-rate and the players scrambled really hard.

"We've got a very hard run coming up with Leinster next, they've got most of the Ireland team and it'll be tough. Our Wales players will be back in the mix, but we'll see how they are.

"Bernard's done a superb job all week prepping the team and the boys responded really well given any pressures there might have been from outside."

Edinburgh coach Richard Cockerill told BBC Sport Wales:

"We made too many errors, Dragons played well and took their opportunities, but I thought we created enough to win the game and didn't take our chances.

"I'll look at ourselves first and some of the decisions around the officiating, the amount of penalties given away and the positive side never seems to get the reward.

"We camped for ten minutes, multiple penalties with no yellow card, then when we do score it's a double movement. You spend ten minutes looking at the screen and then go against the attacking team.

"I'll report to (Pro14 referees manager) Greg Garner, he'll agree with me and we'll go to Cork and play again. I sympathise 100 percent with (Jackman) because they're big decisions that sway games and everyone should be accountable.

"I won't pick any of the (Scotland) internationals next week (against Munster), Bill Mata playing for Fiji, with player welfare you just can't do it and we play on Friday- it's mad scheduling."

Dragons: J Williams; Rosser, T Morgan, Sage, Amos; Tovey, R Williams; Bevington, Hibbard (capt), Fairbrother, Landman, L Evans, Keddie, Cudd, Griffiths.

Replacements: Lawrence, Jarvis, Brown, Nansen, Benjamin, R Davies, Robson, Warren

Edinburgh: Fife; Graham, Johnstone, Dean, D van der Merwe; Hickey, Pyrgos (capt); Schoeman, Ford, Ceccarelli, Hodgson, Hunter-Hill, Toolis, Miller, Hamilton.

Replacements: Cherry, Sutherland, McCallum, Atkinson, Wynne. Kennedy, van der Walt, JP Socino

Referee: Stuart Berry (SARU)

Assistant referees: Adam Jones (WRU), Wayne Davies (WRU)

TMO: Sean Brickell (WRU)