Edinburgh can feel positive that a change of coach and approach, along with a host of new faces, can bring a change of fortune this season, particularly away from home.
They only won twice away in the United Rugby Championship last season, in Zebre and Cardiff, but started this season with an away victory in Newport with new outside half Ben Healy steering them home as one of six debutants.
They maintained a sense of adventure, crucial in earning the match-clinching penalty in the last minute, but it was the boot of Healy which kept them in the game both in terms of general play and on the scoreboard.
That will be crucial in helping them back up this win with another at home to the Emirates Lions this weekend, according to captain Ben Vellacott, along with the changes brought in by new coach Sean Everitt.
“Ben (Healy) was obviously really influential towards the game, it makes my life a lot easier when you have got a 10 who can control the game like he can,” said the scrum half, whose try was created by a Healy break.
“As you can see, he is a quality player, a quality international fly half, so it is great to have him at the club.
“Having Sean as our coach will be really helpful this week, obviously he has a lot of knowledge around South African rugby.
“We want a bit of revenge against the Lions as they took our scalp at home last year, so hopefully it will be a good physical and fast game.”
Edinburgh were 14-3 down at half-time in Newport as their attack failed to gel whenever they were close to the line, but Everitt changed to a more direct approach and that paid dividends with Healy leading the way.
“We often let those games slip away, especially in the last couple of years. We talk about being an 80 minute team and we definitely showed that today,” said Vellacott.
“Obviously we were not too happy with the start of the game, we knew Newport were going to come out fighting, but to come away with the win at the end – we are over the moon.
“We do not want to go away from our strengths, we like to be an attacking team, but we were probably turning over the ball in our own half too much last year, which was probably our downfall.
“So it is just being a little more pragmatic about where we play the game, kicking a little bit earlier which we showed again today.”
Scorers: Dragons: Tries – Tompkinson, Baldwin. Cons – Evans (2). Pen – Evans.
Edinburgh: Try – Vellacott. Con – Healy. Pens – Healy (5).
Dragons: C Evans (W Reed 63); C Baldwin (J Dixon 57), S Tomkinson, S Hughes (Capt), J Rosser; A O'Brien, R Williams (D Blacker 63); R Martinez (R Jones 63), B Roberts (J Benjamin not used), L Fairbrother (L Yendle 63), M Screech (J Davies 69), B Carter, G Nott (Lonsdale 63), H Keddie (S Lonsdale 35-41), O Griffiths.
Edinburgh: C Scott (C Dean 72), R McCann (J Edmunds 72), M Bennett, M Currie, W Goosen; B Healy, B Vellacott (Capt, C Shiel not used); B Venter (R Hislop 61), D Cherry (A McBurney 68), J Sebastian (A Williams 61), G Young, J Hodgson (M Sykes 61), T Dodd, C Neild (C Boyle 37), L Crosbie.
Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU).
