COACH Greg Woods says the Newport Gwent Dragons Premiership Select XV can hold their heads up high after finishing their British and Irish Cup campaign with a victory against Connacht Eagles.

The Dragons did the double over the Irish province thanks to a 10-3 success in a rather underwhelming Pool Five clash in Ebbw Vale.

While Doncaster and Jersey were scrapping it out for top spot in Yorkshire, with the Islanders having to settle for qualifying as a runner-up despite a fine 24-19 win, the dead rubber on a heavy surface at Eugene Cross Park failed to hit the heights.

Both teams made far too many mistakes with the try on the stroke of half-time by Owen Davies an all too rare moment of quality, the Newport scrum-half dashing over after flanker James Benjamin cut a lovely line to burst through midfield.

The Dragons did defend manfully with academy centre Connor Edwards performing well but the fixture didn't come close to matching the drama of the thrilling win against Jersey at Pandy Park in November.

"The performance was pretty poor," admitted Woods. "The error count was high and it did feel like a dead rubber with a bit of a flat atmosphere.

"But the players dug in to the end and it was good to come away with the points – we wanted to finish with three wins and be the Welsh region with the most points, which we accomplished.

"We have been competitive in every game bar the home one with Doncaster and we can hold our heads high.

"The youngsters now know the standards expected of them and as a management team we'd like to thank the semi-pro boys for giving up their time and putting in such a big effort."

The Dragons were on the back foot from the off after blindside Scott Matthews was yellow-carded in the first minute for a dangerous tackle, an offence that Connacht fly-half Shane O'Leary punished with three points.

They failed to add to that tally in the remaining 78 minutes after making mistakes galore despite enjoying plenty of possession and territory.

The Dragons were level-pegging after 20 minutes when Cross Keys fly-half Josh Prosser banged over a penalty following an impressive driving lineout and they were 10-3 in front with the final play of the half.

Benjamin hit the line at speed and showed good hands to gather Prosser's pass before calmly drawing the last man to put Davies under the sticks.

Sadly that was the end of the scoring with a pointless second half in which stoppages were frequent and with a low ball-in-play time.

Connacht, hindered by a woeful lineout, didn't really threaten the line and it was a relief to all concerned when captain Hugh Gustafson booted the ball out himself to secure the spoils.

Dragons: L Ap Myrddin, G Gasson, C Edwards, R Wardle, A Brew (B Nightingale 31), J Prosser, O Davies, H Gustafson (captain), R Buckley (L Garrett 40), L Fairbrother (L Brown 60), S Andrews, A Brown (J Skinner 55), S Matthews, J Benjamin, H Keddie (A Waite 62).

Scorers: try – O Davies; conversion – J Prosser; penalty – J Prosser

Connacht: Api Pewhairangi, E O'Keefe (A Leavy 62), C Brennan, P Robb, F Carr, S O'Leary (C McKeon 56), C Lowdnes (S Kerins 56), R Loughney, J Dinneen (P O'Toole 62), C O'Donnell, D Qualter, D Nolan (C Romaine 62), M Kelly (M Burke 79), R Moloney (captain), C Gallagher (M Cosgrove 72).

Scorer: penalty – S O'Leary

Referee: Jack Makespeace (England)

Argus star man: James Benjamin