Dragons cruise to derby win against hapless Scarlets

Rugby World Cup

Dragons (7) 28

de Beer, Burrows, Richards, Roberts, and O’Brien.

Scarlets (5) 5

Dragons climbed to 10th in the Rugby World Cup (URC) with a comprehensive 28-5 derby win against rock bottom Scarlets in Newport.

The Rodney Parade club propped up the URC in a horrifying 2024-25 match, but they resurrected in the winter with a third successive win.

After a poor first half, the Dragons were 7-5 when Angus O’Brien converted Tinus de Beer’s try in the eighth minute. Scarlets wing Ellis Mee went over after 34 minutes to add the extras, which were missed.

Almost immediately following the restart, the visitors made to pay for Max Douglas, who they almost immediately received a 20-minute red card.

With tries from wing David Richards and hooker Oli Burrows, the Dragons took a 21-5 lead and added a 75-minute bonus with a replacement hooker George Roberts.

After defeating Lyon and Connacht before Christmas, the Dragons were hoping for a hat-trick of wins at Rodney Parade in 2025-26.

When they turned over Scarlets on New Year’s Day, 2024, they had won three consecutive games against Oyonnax and Ospreys under Dai Flanagan, the last time they had won on home soil.

In a 22-19 defeat at Cardiff on December 26th, the Dragons ended an eight-game winless streak in Welsh derbies.

When Filo Tiatia’s side travel to Benetton, they will hope home advantage will help them reach a last 16 tie. Newcastle will take on Benetton in the Challenge Cup on April 1.

In the eighth minute, Dragons took the lead thanks to fly-half de Beer’s hard line running under the posts for a try that full-back O’Brien converted after a driving line-out and centre Aneurin Owen went close.

With a careless start and a fifth offence in the final 24 minutes, Scarlets got on the wrong foot of referee Ben Connor, who was awarded a yellow card for no-arms tackle.

The visitors immediately struck when the scoreline was restored to 15 men and managed to avoid the sin-bin period without further harming the scoreline.

When a driving line-out was stopped and the wing reached over, Hooker Marnus van derby Merwe flicked the ball back to Mee for the 35th minute score.

Joe Hawkins, who had earlier converted a penalty, was relieved to see O’Brien fail with what appeared to be a straightforward three-pointer following a strong scrum.

Soon after the restart, Scarlets lock Douglas was given a 20-minute red for a dangerous clearance on Harri Keddie, but Dragons chose to make the visitors pay.

After being kicked to the corner, O’Brien made it 14-5 before hooker Burrows headed home.

With the addition of additionals, things got better in the 48th minute when Richards hit a short ball from scrum-half Che Hope, who was then beat last man Ioan Nicholas, from which Richards jumped off his wing.

Dragons were able to hunt a four-try bonus in the final stages of the game because Scarlets didn’t threaten to make it a game.

Roberts, who had a hooker crisis and left Doncaster last month, was relieved of his impressive performance from close range when he finished with five minutes left.

G. Roberts, W. Jones, W. Jones, D.lamini, Douglas, Young, R. Williams, Westwood, and Anderson are the replacements.

Scarlets: Anderson, Rogers, Rogers, Roberts, James, Mee, Hawkins, G Davies, Mathias, van der Merwe, Thomas, Douglas, Cuckson, Plumtree, and Cuckson.

Elias, J. Morse, H. O’Connor, J. Price, D. Davis, A. Hughes, Leggatt-Jones, and Page as replacements.

Cuckson 24′, yellow cards

20-minute red card: Douglas 43 ‘

Referee: WRU’s Ben Connor.

Carwyn Sion &amp and Gareth Newman (WRU) serve as assistant referees.

Aled Griffiths (WRU) TMO