Munster brought a dismal record at Rodney Parade to an end on Saturday with a 24-14 win over a game and gutsy Newport Gwent Dragons side in the RaboDirect PRO12.

On a night that saw Mick O'Driscoll win his 200th cap, Munster had to come from behind and a man down – Tomas O'Leary sin-binned, harshly, in the 58th minute – for their first win at the venue in three seasons.

They trailed 11-9 at the break, went 14-9 behind and a man down but marshalled by skipper O'Driscoll came back to score tries through Luke O'Dea and Felix Jones for a ten point victory.

Afterwards, O'Driscoll preferred to talk about the team's, rather than his own achievement, "Look," he said, "it's great to reach the 200 mark, but the important thing about tonight's game was the four points.

"This is always a tough place to come, they're a hard team to handle and I'd be delighted with the way our lads hung in there."

That they did, owed much to their defence and a little dollop of lady luck, particularly around the hour mark. At that stage Dragons led by five and were laying siege to the Munster line on the Bisley Stand side of the pitch.

Munster resisted that assault but when the Dragons went wide left they completely buthered a three on two for a try that would have made a comeback extremely difficult.

As things turned out, Munster took heart from that let-off and levelled the match when replacement Denis Hurley shredded the Dragons defence and took play into the Dragons 22. Lifeimi Mafi stepped in to scrum half and another replacement, Scott Deasy, flung a long cut-out pass to Luke O'Dea who dipped low to score at the corner flag.

It was O'Dea's third try in four starts and he had a deal of work to do when he received the pass, yet showed speed and composure to dot down.

The second try, the one that killed off the Dragons, came when the Dragons put a ball to ground and Jones pounced and took off like an exocet to scorch in under the posts.

Besides ending their losing streak, the win took Munster into clear second place in the table, 12 points behind Leinster with a game in hand, and Leinster to visit Limerick at the end of the month.

Munster: F Jones; L O'Dea, S Tokula, L Mafi, J Murphy; I Keatley, T O'Leary; M Horan, D Fogarty, S Archer; D Foley, M O'Driscoll; Dave O'Callaghan, T O'Donnell, J Coughlan. Replacements: S Deasy for Keatley (54); M Sherry for Fogarty (54); W du Preez for Horan (54); D Hurley for Murphy (57); BJ Botha for Archer (63); B Holland for Foley (63); D Williams for O'Leary (69); P Butler for O'Donnell (76).

Dragons: W Harries; T Chavhanga, A Tuilagi, A Smith, A Brew; L Robling, W Evans; N Williams, S Jones, N Buck; L Charteris, R Sidoli; J Groves, L Evans, T Brown. Replacements: J Dixon for Tuilagi, 46; D Way for Buck, 53; P Price for Williams, 55; S Parry for Jones, 77.

Referee: C Damasco (Italy).