Former Australian international Jason Little's home debut for Bristol was ruined as Newport took advantage of poor home defending to triumph in a friendly at Memorial Stadium.

Having recently returned unbeaten from their three-match tour to Argentina, Bristol fielded England Under-21 lock Andrew Sheridan at tighthead prop and he came up against Newport's Canada international Rod Snow.

The Shoguns' starting line-up included five players making their home debut including former Little in the centre and Scotland international Ross Beattie at number eight.

Newport led 5-3 midway through the first half and, despite making 12 changes, held that lead going into half-time.

Former Queensland Reds fly-half Shane Drahm had put the home side into the lead with a 22-metre penalty only for centre Matt Watkins to score the first try of the game after a 25-metre break following an interception.

The visitors came close to breaching the Bristol line on several occasions but it was not until the 67th minute when Andrew Powell broke from the back of a scrum to feed flanker Gareth Garvell to score the second.

Fly-half Shane Howarth added the conversion and that of his own try five minutes later but Drahm reduced the arrears with a late converted try to give some respectability to the scoreline.

"This was a step up from the games we played in Argentina because we see Newport as the same standard as our Premiership opposition and it is European quality rugby," said Bristol coach Dean Ryan.