United Rugby Championship: Cardiff 31-29 Dragons

Fourteen-man Cardiff ground out a 13th consecutive win over Dragons after an absorbing derby in the Welsh capital.

Dragons surged 14-3 ahead with tries from Taylor Davies and Mesake Doge, before Cardiff responded with Lloyd Williams and Hallam Amos to edge an entertaining first half 18-14.

A penalty try extended Cardiff's lead but Rey Lee-Lo was sent off for a high tackle on Sam Davies.

Rio Dyer crossed to raise the prospect of a late Dragons revival.

But the visitors were thwarted by a resolute defensive display from Cardiff, who remain unbeaten against their local rivals since 2014.

Dragons at least had the consolation of two losing bonus points, as Joe Maksymiw scored their fourth try in the final play of the game.

The quality of this derby came as a relief after the sense of anticipation beforehand had been somewhat tempered by the fact the teams were without a combined 16 players, unavailable having been named in Wales' squad for their autumn Tests.

While Cardiff's 10 absentees forced them into nine changes from last weekend's win over Sharks, the Dragons' six call-ups contributed to 11 changes.

One of the beneficiaries of that upheaval was hooker Davies, making his first Dragons start since joining on loan from Scarlets and marking the occasion with a try after just three minutes.

It was a well-worked score as the visitors rattled through multiple phases at pace, forcing Cardiff's passive defence back towards its own line and setting up Davies to plunge over.

Dragons maintained that tempo to put themselves in an early position of dominance.

With Cardiff scrum-half Lloyd Williams in the sin-bin for a high tackle on Jordan Williams, Dragons strung together another set of attacking phases and - although Williams squandered a huge overlap - prop Doge muscled his way through to touch down for a converted try and a 14-3 lead.

Fortunately for Cardiff, scrum-half Williams redeemed himself swiftly. Back on the field for barely a minute, the Wales international picked up from the base of a ruck, dummied and sniped his way to the line.

Jarrod Evans' second penalty reduced the home side's deficit to one point and, after Amos was denied a try by fine covering Dragons defence, the recently retired Wales back got his score when he latched on to Williams' delightful kick through.

With Evans' conversion, Cardiff led 18-14 at half-time and they extended their advantage 10 minutes into the second half as they were awarded a penalty try after Dragons brought a maul down illegally.

Having repeatedly pulverised the Dragons' scrum, Cardiff looked to be taking control of the match with an 11-point cushion - but Lee-Lo's 53rd-minute red card changed the complexion of the contest.

Referee Ben Whitehouse made the decision after consulting with television match official Sean Brickell, reaching the conclusion that there were no mitigating factors for the Samoan's shoulder making contact with the head of Sam Davies.

Dragons fly-half Davies did not appear to be seriously injured and was able to kick a penalty but, just as the visitors were forcing their way back into the contest, they conceded two cheap penalties that Evans kicked to put Cardiff 31-17 up.

The away side were more ruthless after an hour, exploiting Lee-Lo's departure to work an overlap and put wing Dyer over in the corner for a try which Sam Davies failed to convert.

That left Dragons with a nine-point deficit to overturn in 20 minutes and they were met with significant resistance by a resilient Cardiff team.

The home side not only tackled themselves to a standstill but stole possession at key moments and kept Dragons in their own half for long enough to secure victory regardless of Maksymiw's late try.

Cardiff director of rugby Dai Young told BBC Sport Wales:

"I'm really pleased because a lot of things didn't go our way, the yellow card and then the red card meant we had to adjust, but we grew up as a team.

"We discovered a strength in the scrum and the lineout and kept on going there, where probably in the past we would have played away from it.

"Some you win, some you lose (on the red card to Lee-Lo), the ref has a job to do and player welfare is important. I thought it was quite harsh, but I'm going to, aren't I?

"I hope people enjoyed the game, it was a great crowd (8,194) and whoever put the shirt on, it was still a Cardiff-Dragons game."

Dragons director of rugby Dean Ryan told BBC Sport Wales:

"We came second at scrum time, it would be foolish to hide from the impact that had on the game in terms of field position and that gave them space to hide when they went down to 14 men.

"Because of the pressure we weren't as accurate as we wanted to be. You could see how fast we came out and how dangerous we can be irrespective of our internationals being away, but we definitely came second.

"We're playing well overall but we need to be smarter about the things that we do well and keep working on our areas of weakness, that's our quarter-term report."

Cardiff Rugby: Matthew Morgan; Jason Harries, Rey Lee-Lo, Max Llewellyn, Hallam Amos; Jarrod Evans, Lloyd Williams; Corey Domachowski, Kirby Myhill, Dmitri Arhip, Matthew Screech, Rory Thornton, Josh Turnbull (capt.), Will Boyde, James Ratti.

Replacements: Kristian Dacey, Brad Thyer, Will Davies-King, Teddy Williams, Shane Lewis-Hughes, Ellis Bevan, Dan Fish, Garyn Smith.

Dragons: Jordan Williams, Jonah Holmes, Jack Dixon, Aneurin Owen, Rio Dyer, Sam Davies, Rhodri Williams, Aki Seiuli, Taylor Davies, Mesake Doge, Joe Davies, Joe Maksymiw, Harrison Keddie (capt), Ben Fry, Ollie Griffiths.

Replacements: Ellis Shipp, Greg Bateman, Chris Coleman, Huw Taylor, Dan Baker, Gonzalo Bertranou, Josh Lewis, Jared Rosser.

Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)

Assistant referees: Simon Rees & Ben Breakspear (WRU)

TMO: Sean Brickell (WRU)