The Dragons' search for a first win since October goes on as a scoreless second-half condemned them to defeat against the Vodacom Bulls at Rodney Parade.
The South African outfit had raced into a 17-0 lead early on, but tries from Bradley Roberts and Max Clark had brought them back into contention at half-time - trailing by just three points as a first win in six games appeared possible. However, the might of the Bulls' pack in the second-half stretched that run to seven, moving them up to third in the URC table while the Welsh side remain in 14th.
Dai Flanagan had mused that the world was against them at the moment, with no win in their last six matches. However, for three quarters of Friday night's clash at Rodney Parade, it didn't need to be the world - just last year's beaten URC finalists were enough to contend with.
It took a matter of minutes for the South African outfit to take the lead. Fly-half Johan Goosen was afforded too much time after fielding a kick, allowing him to break away and free up Springbok Kurt-Lee Arendse.
Wales wing Rio Dyer nearly got back to catch the full-back, but Arendse, who scored seven tries in his seven Test matches in his debut season for South Africa last year, had enough to reach the line.
Goosen extended the lead shortly after from the tee, before the Bulls opened up a 17-point lead after just 15 minutes of play through another try. Scrum-half Lewis Jones, in his 100th league appearance, slapped a chip kick dead when a Bulls score looked certain, resulting in a penalty try and yellow card.
However, being reduced to 14 men seemed to galvanise the Gwent side and, without one of their halfbacks, the forwards discovered their edge and the whole team focused their minds. For the second-half of the first 40 minutes, it was Flanagan's side on top.
After a spell of building pressure that saw Dyer nearly creep over in the corner after gathering a cross-kick, a nice lineout move saw hooker Roberts cross on the blindside to open the Dragon's account.
The Dragons comeback continued towards the break as minutes before half-time, centre Clark crossed in the corner after a long floated pass from captain and midfield partner Steff Hughes to make it a three-point game.
Davies had a chance to level the scores shortly after the break, but his long-range penalty agonisingly ricocheted off the crossbar. That, unfortunately, was as good as it got.
As the hour ticked towards the hour mark, the visiting side's power up front began to tell - with a series of close-range scrums ramping up the pressure. Eventually, that handed inside centre Harold Vorster the space to cross just one pass out from the set-piece and open up a 10-point lead heading into the final quarter.
That was followed up shortly after by the Bulls' bonus point try as Bismarck du Plessis was the grateful recipient at the tale of a driving maul, ending the game as a contest.
The Dragons fought until the end despite their shape gradually seeping away, but they couldn't end the night with any sort of consolation score.
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