Man of the Match, captain Jason Forster led from the front and was always in the thick of the action and it was fitting that he claimed the bonus point try. The other three Dragons tries came from Gareth Chapman, Michael Owen and a penalty try thanks for the forward pack supremacy.
Connacht, who the week before had beaten Ulster took the confidence from that win into the match and opened scoring with a David Slemen penalty.
Warlow’s penalty attempt minutes later failed, but immediately afterwards played a part in The Dragons first try. He sent Hal Luscombe through the Connacht defence with a superb pass before Luscombe fed Chapman who crashed over the line to give the home side a 5-3 lead.
The visitors restored their lead when Slemen added another penalty for an offside infringement.
Michael Owen claimed The Dragons second try when the Men of Gwent had the ascendancy in the scrum and pushed the visitors backwards and he picked up the ball and touched down to lead 10-6. However, Connacht refused to lie down and took the lead with 30 minutes gone on the clock, Slemen gifted from a Conor McPhillips kick and he had a simple run in under the posts and he converted the try to lead 10-13.
Before half time The Dragons went back ahead as they went for the push over try and when Connacht’s scrum collapsed for the third time the referee awarded a penalty try. In what was a see-saw of a game Connacht reduced the arrears to just four points at the break when Slemen added another penalty.
The second half saw Warlow slot his first penalty to extend the Dragons lead to seven points. Despite having territorial dominance The Dragons could not add the points on the board and their lead was reduced to a single point when replacement Paul Warwick kicked another penalty.
When Connacht prop Dan McFarland was sent to the sin bin The Dragons capitalised on the numerical advantage when Forster powered over from a lineout and Warlow sealed the win with a touchline conversion.
