Newport Gwent Dragons had enough in the tank to secure a 23-14 win over Aironi at Rodney Parade on Saturday.
The Dragons pick up their first points of the season, despite a shaky performance in their first home game of the campaign.
Aironi only managed to pick up three points on their travels in the whole of last season's RaboDirect Pro12 and on the evidence here, it was easy to see why.
It was all Newport for the opening ten minutes of the game and the home side scored an early try after just five minutes when outside centre Tom Riley went over, and Jason Tovey kicked the conversion.
Newport then seemed to take their foot off the gas for the rest of the first half, but Jason Tovey gave them a ten point lead after the first quarter, and added another penalty on the half hour mark to leave them in control nonetheless.
Aironi did manage to get off the mark before the break, fly-half Naas Oliver kicking a penalty to give the Italian side some kind of platform to build upon, but at half time, the signs already looked ominous for them.
The away side started the second half the better though, and when Oliver added his second penalty of the game, it left Aironi with a chance of gaining something from the match.
Indeed, the Italian side stunned the Welsh midway through the second half when second row Josh Furno charged over the Newport line to reduce the deficit.
The Dragons needed to respond fast, and did so just three minutes later, adding another try of their own with number eight Andrew Coombs finishing off a brilliant Newport attack.
Aironi never really recovered from that setback and although Oliver scored his third penalty of the game soon after, substitute Matthew Jones finished things off for Newport with another three-pointer.
The scorers:
For Dragons:
Tries: Riley, Coombs
Cons: Tovey 2
Pens: Tovey 2, Jones
For Aironi
Tries: Furno
Pens: Olivier 3
Dragons: 15 Martyn Thomas, 14 Adam Hughes, 13 Tom Riley, 12 Pat Leach, 11 Mike Poole, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Wayne Evans, 8 Andrew Coombs, 7 Gavin Thomas, 6 Lewis Evans, 5 Rob Sidoli, 4 Adam Jones, 3 Dan Way, 2 Tom Willis, 1 Phil Price.
Replacements: 16 Rhys Buckley, 17 Nathan Williams, 18 Nathan Buck, 19 Darren Waters , 20 Jevon Groves, 21 Joe Bedford, 22 Matthew Jones, 23 Matthew Pewtner.
Aironi: 15 Ruggero Trevisan, 14 Sinoti Sinoti, 13 Gilberto Pavan, 12 Gabriel Pizarro, 11 Giovanbattista Venditti, 10 Naas Olivier, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Nick Williams, 7 Nicola Cattina, 6 Frans Viljoen; 5 George Biagi, 4 Joshua Furno; 3 Fabio Staibano, 2 Roberto Santamaria (capt), 1 Matias Aguero.
Replacements: 16 Davide Giazzon, 17 Alberto De Marchi, 18 Lorenzo Romano, 19 Josh Sole, 20 Simone Favaro, 21 Tyson Keats, 22 Alberto Benettin, 23 Riccardo Pavan
Referee: Leo Colgan (IRFU)
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