Dragons take chances to stun Scarlets

By ROGER PANTING

Scarlets …………14pts

Tries: Hardy 23, Tuipulotu 71

Conversions: Costelow 23, 71

Dragons…………. 31pts

Tries: Dee 4, J Williams 6, Tomkinson 14, Hughes 79

Conversions: O'Brien 4, 6, 14, 79

Penalties: O'Brien 47

With Dragons not having won since October, only the most fervent of their supporters would have predicted this scoreline.

Since the New Year, resurgent Scarlets have been in explosive form but with their minds firmly set on next week's European Challenge Cup semi-final they underestimated their opponents who took full advantage to record only a fourth victory of a miserable season.

Dragons head coach Dai Flanagan said: “It's very frustrating that we haven't been able to produce more performances like that.

“In the second half we displayed massive commitment to show how desperate we were to win and going forward it's a huge result for us.”

For once Dragons took their chances when the opportunities came with Taine Basham and Aaron Wainwright at the forefront of an impressive forward effort which knocked Scarlets completely out of their stride.

Behind the scrum, former Scarlets, Angus O'Brien, Steff Hughes, Rhodri and Jordan Williams, all outshone their more illustrious counterparts as the West Walians struggled to get a foothold in the match.

They badly missed the explosiveness of forwards Sione Kalamafoni and Sam Lousi with none of their highly-touted backs able to make an impression before the watching Welsh coaching staff.

The game began in explosive fashion as Dragons turned the form book on its head by scoring 21 points in the first 14 minutes.

Scarlets' problems began in the third minute when Vaea Fifita, lashed out to punch Aaron Wainwright in the face after a melee.

With strict referee Jaco Peyper in charge, the Tongan lock must have been fearing the worst but surprisingly the South African chose to issue only a yellow card.

However, Dragons capitalised by scoring two tries in three minutes. First Elliot Dee crashed over from a driving maul before swift passing created space for Rio Dyer, who ran strongly to provide Jordan Williams with an easy run-in.

Dragons added a third when Sio Tomkinson quickly took a tap penalty to catch the defence napping. O'Brien converted all three so Fifita's misdemeanour proved extremely costly.

The Tongan returned in time to see his side score when Kieran Hardy took advantage of a succession of five-metre scrums to dart over with Sam Costelow's conversion leaving Scarlets trailing 21-7 at the interval.

After the restart Dragons extended their lead with a 45 metre penalty from O'Brien with Scarlets making a raft of changes in attempt to galvanise them from their mediocrity.

They were rewarded with a try from Carwyn Tuipolutu but Dragons had the final say when Steff Hughes raced over in the final minute for the bonus-point try.

Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel said: “It was a very poor performance. We were littered with inaccuracy. Our attack in their 22 was poor and we need to improve loads to go head to head with Glasgow next week.”