Newport Gwent Dragons suffered their first defeat under new coach Paul Turner at the New Stadium, Swansea, last night but had chances to beat the Celtic League champions.

Twice in the closing stages as they trailed by six points they won attacking platforms close to the Ospreys line but each time failed to win their own lineouts and the danger was cleared.

Ultimately, despite a spirited effort in a bruising but not very skilful encounter, the Dragons failed because they could not hold on to possession for long enough periods.

The Dragons had the better of the opening stages and after a high kick from Craig Warlow and a charge by Luke Charteris the Ospreys conceded a penalty which Warlow promptly goaled to give the Dragons the lead.

But it lasted only a few minutes as the Dragons scrum was immediately in trouble and when the ball came back on the Ospreys side their acting captain, Leigh Davies, sent out a long pass and wing Aled Brew, younger brother of the Dragons' Nathan, strolled over unopposed in the corner for an unconverted try.

Ospreys lost Wales forward Jonathan Thomas for treatment to a gashed head and the match was turning ugly with a number of clashes between the forwards.

After another eruption the referee spoke to Dragons captain Jason Forster about one of his forwards and Matthew Jones landed the resultant penalty.

The Dragons lost number eight Richard Bryan with a similar injury to the one suffered by Thomas and the Dragons were in more trouble when flanker Jamie Ringer was harshly sin binned for preventing the ball being released when he appeared to be trapped at the bottom of a ruck .

It was not as if there had been a warning, but some justice was done when the Dragons were awarded a penalty for a ruck offence and Warlow was on target to narrow the gap to two points.

Despite being down to 14 men the Dragons threatened when Jon Bryant steamed through two would-be tacklers but couldn't get his pass away properly because Hal Luscombe was held off the ball.

The Dragons were down to 13 men when referee Whitehouse sin binned Kevin Morgan for preventing release, and it needed a great piece of covering by Hal Luscombe to prevent a try by Terblanche.

Ringer returned as the Dragons were pinned near their line but he couldn't prevent a penalty try being awarded against his side for pulling a scrum around illegally. Jones converted for a 15-6 interval lead.

The Dragons' problems continued when hooker Kieran Crawford had to go off after damaging his suspect shoulder, replaced by Newport's Gethin Robinson.

Immediately the Dragons attacked hard with Forster, Bryan, Wyatt, Thomas and Ringer all handling and when Duncan Jones was yellow carded for preventing release Warlow landed his third penalty.

The Dragons came alive when Sione Tuipulotu, who had replaced Breeze with Morgan moving to wing, Morgan and Wyatt handled well only for the covering Steve Tandy to deny Wyatt.

A late penalty and two line-outs could have saved it for the Dragons but Robinson couldn't find his man.

Ospreys: S Terblanche, R Mustoe, S Parker, L Davies, A Brew, M Jones, J Spice, D Jones, H Bennett, A Jones (D Jones 69), B Cockbain (A Newman 49), I Evans, J Thomas (A Wyn Jones 11-19), A Lloyd (P James 60-69, A Wyn Jones 82), S Tandy. Scorers: tries: A Brew, penalty try; conversion: M Jones; penalty: M Jones.

Newport Gwent Dragons: K Morgan, G Wyatt, H Luscombe, J Bryant, B Breeze (L Hinton 58-62, S Tuipulotu 66), C Warlow, G Baber, A Black, K Crawford (G Robinson 55), R Thomas, I Gough (A Hall 80), L Charteris, J Ringer, R Bryan (R Oakley 22-34), J Forster. Scorers: penalties: C Warlow (3).

Referee: Mr. N Whitehouse (WRU).