Dragons 19-38 Scarlets: Visitors enjoy bonus-point revenge

Scarlets exacted derby revenge against Dragons while keeping their play-off hopes alive.

In a lively affair, they ran in six tries at Rodney Parade to secure the bonus point which keeps them in top eight contention.

Dragons had fought back from 17-0 down, but remain winless at home this season.

Angus O'Brien scored twice against his former side, while Sam Lousi, Ryan Elias, Rob Evans and Corey Baldwin also crossed.

Tries from Jack Dixon, Jordan Williams and Adam Warren sparked a home comeback, but two late tries sealed victory for Scarlets.

Dragons started confidently in the sunshine on the back of last weekend's win in Llanelli, and enjoyed an early edge in the scrum.

They should have opened the scoring after Ben Fry made a break, but with the try line in sight his offload was knocked on by Gonzalo Bertranou.

Instead Scarlets drew first blood, with returning lock Lousi twisting his way over to touch down one-handed in the corner.

The lead was doubled soon after, as full-back O'Brien raced 40 metres from quick turnover ball.

Momentum then shifted as the visitors were reduced to 14 men for a deliberate knock-on, not the way Steff Evans would have wanted to mark his 150th Scarlets appearance.

Dragons enjoyed a good spell in the Scarlets half, but the physicality of the visitors' defence repelled any score.

In fact Scarlets came closest with Jonathan Davies breaking down the wing, and had Evans been on the pitch it would surely have ended in a try.

They did get their third from a five-metre driving line-out, Elias crossing on his return having recovered from a head injury.

Dragons looked to have instantly hit back - Sam Davies put Rio Dyer through - only for an incredible O'Brien tap tackle to bring him down agonisingly short of the line.

Scarlets continued to defend resolutely as the forwards piled on the pressure, with Dixon crossing just before half-time.

Dragons came close to reducing the deficit further after the break, Dyer with another clean break.

The score eventually came from full-back Williams, who showed quick feet to spin through the defensive line.

Both sides continued to attack in end-to-end fashion, and Evans once again came under the spotlight for a deliberate knock-on but after consultation with the TMO he breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Scarlets came close to restoring their two-score lead, with Elias appearing to be through for his second after some great offload play, but he was well held up by Dyer despite the mismatch in size.

Dragons took the lead on the hour when Warren carved up the defence to send the home crowd wild.

But celebrations were short lived as Scarlets took advantage of poor discipline to set up another five metre driving line-out, with replacement prop Evans grounding the ball.

Scarlets managed the game well for the final 10 minutes, their driving line-out once again proving a potent weapon.

Two late tries followed, Baldwin and O'Brien crossing in the same corner with Rhys Patchell nailing both touchline conversions.

Dragons director of rugby, Dean Ryan:

"The frustration is, there is a decent game in there, but our error count and quality of play is not good enough, that is something we have got to address.

"We are quite aligned in what we talk about, but we are not aligned in what happens out there.

"I thought they looked for the taking, if we could just get back into their half, hold onto the ball, but we could not do that.

"For some reason we think other things and that is something we have got to be really hard on across this week."

Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel:

"It is obviously a good win, we started brightly this week and scored two good transition tries.

"At half time we were fairly comfortable and then, to be fair to the Dragons, they were very good in the first 20 minutes of the second half. They put us under a lot of pressure and at 19-17 we were in for a right battle.

"Credit to the boys, and the togetherness we showed in that last 20.

"I'm delighted to get the bonus point, we did not speak about it beforehand, but it is actually very important."

Dragons: Jordan Williams; Rio Dyer, Adam Warren, Jack Dixon, Jared Rosser; Sam Davies, Gonzalo Bertranou; Aki Seiuli, Taylor Davies, Leon Brown, Ben Carter, Will Rowlands, Harri Keddie (capt), Ben Fry, Aaron Wainwright

Replacements: Elliot Dee, Josh Reynolds, Chris Coleman, Joe Davies, Taine Basham, Rhodri Williams, Josh Lewis, Ioan Davies.

Scarlets: Angus O'Brien; Corey Baldwin, Jonathan Davies (capt), Johnny Williams, Steff Evans; Rhys Patchell, Gareth Davies; Steff Thomas, Ryan Elias, Javan Sebastian, Sam Lousi, Jac Price, Josh Macleod, Tomas Lezana, Sione Kalamafoni.

Replacements: Daf Hughes, Rob Evans, WillGriff John, Morgan Jones, Aaron Shingler, Kieran Hardy, Tyler Morgan, Eddie James.

Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU)

Assistant referees: Gareth Newman, Elgan Williams (WRU)

TMO: Wayne Davies (WRU)