Dominance up front gets Dragons out of trouble

THE Dragons warmed up for their daunting PRO14 trip to Leinster with a good win over an experimental Scarlets side.

Despite struggling to contain a dangerous back division, the Dragons’ forward power saw them home with tries from Ellis Shipp, scrum-half Dan Babos and replacement prop Brok Harris

Teenage full-back Tomi Lewis and centre Rhodri Jones grabbed two tries for the visitors.

“We didn’t want to play a forward orientated game but we got ourselves into a tricky situation at half-time,” said Jackman. “We had to dig deep by playing to our strengths.

“We want to play an all singing all dancing brand of rugby but you need to have a pack that can impose itself; if you get into a bad situation it’s nice to have a tool in your pocket which you can use to get dominance.”

Scarlets opened the scoring with Lewis touching down following a quickly taken penalty by lively No.9 Lee Rees.

Dragons didn’t even have time to catch their breath when the young West Walians broke from their own 22. Lewis made the initial break before highly rated teenage wing Rogers raced away down the flank to put Jones in for a try.

Arwel Robson and Billy McBryde swapped penalties meaning the Scarlets turned around 15-3 to the good at half time.

It took just three minutes of the second half for the Dragons to cross the whitewash with replacement hooker Shipp scoring after a powerful driving lineout.

Scarlets tighthead Javan Sebastian was sin binned for illegally playing the ball on the floor and scrum-half Dan Babos, who was a constant threat throughout, subsequently crossed from short range.

South African prop Harris then powered over to put the Dragons ahead for the first time.

Scarlets’ task became harder when replacement flanker Joseph Powell was yellow carded for coming into a ruck from the side. McBryde and Gavin Henson exchanged penalties to ensure a tense ending but the hosts held out for a well-earned victory.

“We were happy with the first half because we managed to control the pace of the game which suited us,” said Scarlets coach Euros Evans. “We didn’t get enough ball in the second half which stopped us playing.”