Dean Ryan’s side trailed 24-14 at the hour mark, but the Welsh region staged a late fightback to head into the new season on a high.
The home side had started the match the livelier, taking the lead just before the end of the first quarter thanks to Josh Bassett’s finish out wide. Wasps went down to 14 men minutes after, when Brad Shields took Dan Babos out in the air.
However, the card had little effect as they finished the sin-bin period ten minutes later with Bassett crossing for his second.
On the brink of half-time, the Dragons got on the scoreboard. Jack Dixon found space and after some great hands from Dixon, Ioan Davies and Babos, Aneurin Owen crossed the whitewash, with Sam Davies converting.
The Dragons started the second-half as they finished the first, with Jonah Holmes putting them ahead with a well-taken try from a training ground move.
However, Wasps wrestled back the lead with scores from Dan Robson and Will Porter. From there though, all the scoring was done on the part of the Dragons.
First, Owen set up Holmes’ second try with a neat grubber to reduce the deficit. And with just over ten minutes left, they took the lead again as prop Josh Reynolds showed his pace to finish after nice work from Davies.
With the final kick of the game, Davies kicked a penalty to add some extra gloss to the scoreboard and seal victory.
