Jason Tovey marked his 100th start for the Dragons with a dramatic late penalty that sealed a hard-fought 20-19 RaboDirect PRO12 victory against Treviso.

The losing bonus point for the Italians was enough however to leapfrog their rivals Zebre and claim the Italian European qualification spot.

Fabio Semenzato’s early score and Manoa Vosawai’s late one, coupled with the boot of fly-half Alberto Di Bernardo, looked like it would be enough to extend the Dragons’ losing streak to eight league games.

But the Welsh region, who scored two tries of their own through Tyler Morgan and Will Harries, held their nerve at the death as Tovey slotted a late kick to deny the Italians their first away victory of the season.

Indeed it was Tovey who opened the scoring, nailing a second-minute penalty to put the hosts into an early lead that did not last very long.

Weak defence around the fringes allowed scrum-half Semenzato to dart over and although Di Bernardo missed the conversion the visitors were in front 5-3.

Indeed the Italians were the dominant force in the early exchanges and Harries found himself in the sin bin for ten minutes not long after as Christian Loamanu’s fine break forced an infringement from the backtracking Welsh side.

The Italians smelt blood and, desperate to make the most of their their numerical advantage, continued to batter their hosts’ line.

The Welsh region held out though and Treviso had to settle for just a Di Bernardo penalty to stretch the lead to 8-3.

Harries returned not long after and on the half hour mark the Dragons struck back, Morgan collecting Lewis Evans’ offload to streak clear for a fine individual score, Tovey adding the extras to put them back in front at 10-8.

A Di Bernardo penalty just before half-time puts visitors back in front at the interval however although the Welsh region had finally begun to assert themselves.

And five minutes after the re-start Harries went over, Morgan again the catalyst with a fine break down the left before his chip over the top was collected by Harries who scored, Tovey’s conversion making it 17-11.

However on the hour mark the Italians deservedly got back into the contest, Vosawai going over in the corner and although Di Bernardo’s conversion missed when they could have re-taken the lead, a losing bonus point would be enough to lift them above Zebre.

They almost had the victory as well when Di Bernardo nailed a penalty moments later and with Lewis Evans in the sin bin the game looked up for the Welsh.

But Tovey kept calm to slot a late penalty that sealed victory and lifted the Dragons up to ninth in the final standings.

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