Dragons break losing streak against Scarlets
URC REPORT: Dragons ended a run of 10 successive United Rugby Championship defeats as they ended their campaign with a 31-14 win over Scarlets on Judgement Day at the Principality Stadium.
Dragons had not won since October but aided by an explosive start, they knocked Scarlets off their game with a battling performance.
Elliott Dee, Jordan Williams, Sio Tomkinson and Steff Hughes scored their tries with Angus O’Brien converting all four and adding a penalty.
Kieran Hardy and Carwyn Tuipulotu scored tries for Scarlets, both of which Sam Costelow converted.
Scarlets lock Vaea Fifita was sin-binned after lashing out at Aaron Wainwright and Dragons capitalised by scoring two tries in three minutes.
First 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.
Before Fifita could return, the Gwent region added a third when Tomkinson quickly took a tap penalty to catch the defence napping. O’Brien converted all three so Scarlets had conceded 21 points in their player’s absence.
The Tongan returned in time to see his side come onto the scoreboard when Hardy took advantage of a succession of five-metre scrums to dart over with Costelow’s conversion leaving his side trailing 7-21 at the interval.
Scarlets had the better of the second quarter and began the second half strongly but were error-ridden in the face of some determined tackling from the opposition.
Five minutes after the restart, their head coach, Dwayne Peel, brought on four replacements but against the run of play, Dragons extended their lead with a 45-metre penalty from O’Brien.
Scarlets also replaced Fifita to keep him fresh for next Saturday’s European Challenge Cup semi-final against Glasgow.
Welsh internationals, Gareth Davies, and Jonny McNicholl, were further replacements for Scarlets and eventually their dominance was rewarded when Tuipulotu crashed over with 10 minutes remaining but Dragons had the final say when Hughes raced over in the final minute for the bonus-point try.
Player of the Match
After a disappointing season, Taine Basham was back to near his best to spearhead a huge effort from his pack to outshine their opponents. His work at the breakdown and his determined tackling frustrated Scarlets to ensure his side went home with a memorable victory.
Play of the Match
To make a decent fist of the contest, struggling Dragons needed a fast start to give them some confidence and did so by taking advantage of Vaea Fifita’s absence to score a splendid second try. From a line-out on half-way, they produced a flowing three-quarter move which saw Rio Dyer flash down the right flank before Jordan Williams was presented with the scoring pass.
The scorers:
For Dragons:
Tries: Dee, Williams, Tomkinson, Hughes
Cons: O’Brien 4
Pen: O’Brien
For Scarlets:
Tries: Hardy, Tuipulotu
Cons: Constelow 2
Yellow card: Vaea Fifita (Scarlets, 3)
Teams:
Dragons: 15 Jordan Williams, 14 Rio Dyer, 13 Sio Tomkinson, 12 Steff Hughes, 11 Ashton Hewitt, 10 Angus O’Brien, 9 Rhodri Williams (captain), 8 Aaron Wainwright, 7 Taine Basham, 6 George Nott, 5 Matthew Screech, 4 Ben Carter, 3 Lloyd Fairbrother, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Rhodri Jones.
Replacements: 16 Bradley Roberts, 17 Rob Evans, 18 Chris Coleman, 19 Huw Taylor, 20 Sean Lonsdale, 21 Lewis Jones, 22 Will Reed, 23 Aneurin Owen.
Scarlets: 15 Tom Rogers, 14 Steff Evans, 13 Joe Roberts, 12 Johnny Williams, 11 Ryan Conbeer, 10 Sam Costelow, 9 Kieran Hardy, 8 Carwyn Tuipulotu, 7 Josh Macleod (captain), 6 Iwan Shenton, 5 Morgan Jones, 4 Vaea Fifita, 3 Javan Sebastian, 2 Ken Owens, 1 Kemsley Mathias.
Replacements: 16 Daf Hughes, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Sam Wainwright, 19 Iestyn Rees, 20 Shaun Evans, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Dan Jones, 23 Johnny McNicholl.
Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Adam Jones (Wales) & Elgan Williams (Wales)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (Ireland)
