Ireland fly-half Andrew Burke booted three penalties to Jason Tovey’s two in a match dominated by the boot and lacking in quality at Parc y Scarlets with no points scored in the second half.
The hosts took the lead in the sixth minute when Wales full-back Tovey booted home a routine penalty after the visitors failed to roll away in the tackle.
But the Emerald Isle were level three minutes later and capitalised on ill-discipline from Wales centre Ashley Beck who shoved Shane Garan in the back off the ball.
And late replacement Burke saw his sweetly-struck penalty from distance fly through the posts with consummate ease.
Burke punished Beck again for another infringement to add his second successful kick in the 12th minute and hand Ireland the lead for the for the first time.
Tovey missed a straightforward chance to tie the scores three minutes later but he made amends with his second penalty at the end of the opening quarter.
In a topsy-turvy game, Ireland regained the lead with a third penalty from Burke on 22 minutes. But then it took minutes for the scoreboard to change.
Burke had two more attempts in the opening half either side of Tovey’s failed effort who crashed his penalty against the right-hand post as Ireland led 9-6 at the break.
Ireland’s fly-half missed another simple chance in the 44th minute before David Langdon took over the kicking duties for Wales.
Langdon suffered the misfortunate of striking the post twice with long-range penalty attempts before he was denied by Paddy McAlister superb covering tackle in the 56th minute.
Then Ireland closed the Dragons out in the final quarter with a gutsy and defiant defence to clinch victory.
