Newport Gwent Dragons jumped to third place in the Celtic League table with a game in hand after a magnificent bonus point 34-13 victory over high flying Leinster at Rodney Parade last night.

The Dragons scored four tries for the second game running, two of them by winger Gareth Wyatt, and can now go on the road to Belfast and Galashiels in the next fortnight with confidence before launching their Heineken Cup programme against Newcastle.

It was comfortably the best Dragons performance of the season, considering the quality of the opposition, and the Dragons were given a rapturous reception after scoring 18 points in the final 12 minutes.

Dragons coach Chris Anderson was full of praise for his side, Wyatt in particular, and with the defence again.

He said: "Our defence was great for the whole game, we handled their forwards very well and when we had the opportunities we took them well after bombing a couple in our other games.

"Gareth Wyatt had a great game and I'm really pleased for him, he struggled a bit last week but came out and showed he wanted to play.

"Confidence was the difference in him this week and he showed people a few things.

"Jamie Ringer has been playing well every week, Ceri Sweeney had a great game and Kevin Morgan tackled really well. I didn't know what to expect because I hadn't seen them play but we hung in there when we had to."

Anderson was again impressed with the support and believes the team can go a long way, but says he will make sure they keep their feet on the ground.

"It was goosebump stuff with the crowd at the end, to have that kind of support behind you is great," he said.

"As for how far we can go it is up to us. It's how far do we want to go? It was our first big win against a quality side, but we've got to be consistent and build on that."

It was a bad night for Leinster coach Declan Kidney on his return to Rodney Parade.

"It was no more then I expected, the Dragons are a very good side who play for one another," he said. "The Dragons had two or three more try scoring opportunities but they spilled the ball or it could have been even more."

Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll, playing his first game of the season, admitted: "We were outplayed, it was very disappointing."