Nick De Luca scored a well-taken try but it was not enough to preserve Edinburgh's unbeaten home record as the men in black and red crashed to a nerve-shredding defeat to Newport Gwent Dragons, losing 19-13 at The Castle.

With the club’s Scotland internationals taking a well deserved break, Edinburgh’s young side set out to keep the club’s bright start to the season going.

But they encountered tough opposition in the shape of a Colin Charvis-led Dragons team that seemed to be hell-bent on proving a point.

Accordingly, the Dragons took a surprise early lead when a misplaced pass was expertly read by outside half Ceri Sweeney, who scored a breakaway interception try before kicking the conversion.

Employing a fluent brand of attacking rugby, the Dragons looked both bright and purposeful moving forward and also showed tenacity at the breakdown.

But Edinburgh started to generate some serious momentum and a rampaging run from Ben Gissing resulted in the first penalty of the night.

Phil Godman uncharacteristically miscued his attempt at goal, but the Edinburgh fly-half later made amends with a well-executed penalty to reduce the deficit.

Nevertheless the visitors were in control of the match and scrum-half Wayne Evans touched down to score from close range on the 18-minute mark.

His try extended the away side’s lead and Sweeney made no mistake with the conversion to give Edinburgh a mountain to climb.

With the pressure almost reaching breaking point, Edinburgh were let off the hook when Sweeney sent an off-key penalty wide of the posts.

Godman’s boot, albeit with a huge slice of luck, doubled Edinburgh’s tally for the night with a penalty that bounced over.

Edinburgh’s good fortune continued when Rhys Thomas was yellow-carded five minutes before half-time, but handling errors prevented the home side from making the numerical advantage count.

During the break, assistant coach Rob Moffat rang the changes in a bid to revitalise the Edinburgh side and brought on Ali Warnock and, within a minute, he was called upon to kick a long range penalty.

But his effort narrowly fell short of the target and the 14-man Dragons breathed a sigh of relief.

Nevertheless Edinburgh kept going and a great off-load from Matt Mustchin on the narrowside enabled Nick De Luca to see the whitewash and the full-back shrugged off two tackles before touching down.

Warnock nailed the conversion and Edinburgh had courageously managed to claw their way back into the game.

Roland Reid was then introduced into the back row as the pendulum swung back in favour of Edinburgh in a topsy turvy encounter at The Castle.

Steven Lawrie and Matt Dey then came on for Andrew Kelly and Andrew Maxwell as Edinburgh searched for the winning score in a tense match littered with handling errors.

But Sweeney, voted man of the match by the media, expertly took a cross-field chip and score in the corner to widen the gap, although the conversion was missed.

The game went right to the wire, but although Edinburgh staged a heroic finale, the men in black and red could not find a way through to score that all-important try.

The defeat leaves Edinburgh in seventh place in the Magners League standings with the domestic programme set to resume after a one-week break when the club travels to the west of Ireland to face Connacht aiming to get back to winning ways.

Edinburgh: De Luca, A. Turnbull, Cairns, Houston, Maxwell, Godman, Meyer, Allori, Kelly, G. Cross, Hamilton, Gissing, Mustchin, Rennie, S. Cross. Replacements: Dey for Maxwell (57), Warnock for Godman (49), Laidlaw for Meyer (61), Grant for Allori (28), Lawrie for Kelly (57), Pringle for Hamilton (72), Reid for Mustchin (51).

Dragons: Morgan, Wyatt, Davies, Smith, Mustoe, Sweeney, W. Evans, Black, S. Jones, R. Thomas, Charteris, Hall, Charvis, Parks, Owen. Replacements: M. Thomas for Morgan (32), Bearman for S. Jones (61), Ringer for Hall (51), Gustafson for Parks (35). Not Used: Daly, A. Thomas, Walker.

Att: 1,412