A late Jevon Groves try and Jason Tovey’s nerveless conversion saw the Dragons snatch a share of the spoils in Italy after Luciano Orquera’s boot looked to have given Zebre their fourth victory of the season.
And, although the fact that they missed out on victory means they are now just two points above Cardiff Blues and 11 adrift of the Scarlets in the RaboDirect PRO12 table, Jones was much more content than he was after last week’s disappointing display against Connacht.
“I’m pleased with how the players have responded – they have taken on more responsibility for their actions, which was very pleasing,” said Jones after his team avoided what would have been their third loss in a row.
“Overall there was a lot of good in our game. Our confidence was shattered after the Connacht defeat and we knew it was going to be a tough game and it proved just that. I thought we did well not to lose.
“The beauty of regional rugby is that, after a bad result, you have the opportunity to get back up to speed very quickly.
“We need to focus on keeping improving and on how to deal with pressure situations but I think we’ve made a lot of progress. We are heading into the game against Edinburgh in much better shape and I am very pleased about that.”
Zebre took the lead through Samuela Vunisa’s early try while Taulupe Faletau was in the sin bin after he was adjudged to have pulled down a maul five metres from the Dragons line. But Dan Evans and Ashley Smith hit back after centre Gonzalo Garcia extended the lead with a long-range penalty. Tovey added the extras to Smith’s try and kicked a penalty.
Orquera landed five penalties to give Zebre a 25-18 lead but Groves broke free for the Dragons’ crucial try, which Tovey calmly converted to bag the Men of Gwent a share of the points.
