Davies touched down three minutes from time after Dorian Jones kicked 15 points to kill off the defending champions, who scored tries through Ben Morgan and Steve McColl but it wasn’t enough to save their 15-game winning run in the tournament.

Jones handed Dragons an early lead with the first of four penalties but Gloucester swiftly recovered with the game’s first try.

Mark Atkinson twice broke through before Matt Kvesic’s offload handed Morgan a clear run to the corner on 14 minutes.

It was Gloucester’s indiscipline that proved costly despite Laidlaw extending the lead to 11-6 as he was then binned for infringing at a ruck and successful kicks allowed Dragons to come from behind to lead at the break.

Dragons looked to have a strangle-hold on the game until a fortunate break allowed Gloucester to level the scores on 64 minutes.

James Hook lost control but the deflection bounced over the head of Pretorius and into the hands of McColl for an easy finish under the posts.

And when Laidlaw kicked a further penalty, Gloucester looked to be heading through but the Welsh region would not lie down.

Dragons mounted a final surge and were rewarded for turning down the chance to take the game to extra time when they kicked a penalty into touch.

Matthew Screech took the lineout and as Dragons added extra men to the driving maul, replacement scrum-half Davies scampered over for the match-winning score.

On this day in 2016, a late Charlie Davies try saw Newport Gwent Dragons defeat holders Gloucester Rugby 23-21 to book a place in the European Rugby Challenge Cup semi-finals.