United Rugby Championship: Scarlets secure bonus point win in Dragons derby
2024-12-30
Category: sports

United Rugby ChampionshipScarlets (24) 32Tries: Murray 2, Macloed, Mee Cons: Costelow 3 Pens: Costelow, LloydDragons (3) 15Tries: Basham, Anderson Con: O'Brien Pen: O'Brien
Scarlets welcomed the new year with a bonus-point derby win over Dragons in the United Rugby Championship (URC).Returning Wales wing Blair Murray scored twice in a dominant first-half display, with skipper Josh Macloed also going over.Ellis Mee secured the bonus-point after the break before a shift in momentum allowed Taine Basham and Huw Anderson to cross for the visitors.A return to winning ways lifts Scarlets up to sixth in the table, while Dragons remain rooted to the bottom having only secured one victory this season.
Both sides made changes after losing the west and east festive derbies to Ospreys and Cardiff respectively.Wales hooker Elliot Dee had been due make his first start of the campaign since recovering from an ankle injury, but was a late Dragons withdrawal.After some early kick exchanges, Dragons scrum-half Rhodri Williams made a breakthrough with a 50:22, but his side were turned over after a promising attacking lineout.Sam Costelow saw space on the right and some great interplay between Taine Plumtree, Tom Rogers and Johnny Williams allowed Gareth Davies to release Murray through the gap.Costelow added the extras before kicking a long-range penalty after Dragons were penalised at the breakdown.Visiting skipper Angus O'Brien took the opportunity to get Dragons on the board when Scarlets were caught offside, but it did little to steady the ship after they failed to take the restart.The returning Alex Craig pounced on a loose ball before Macloed was able to throw a looping pass out to Murray who finished in the tightest of corners against Rio Dyer.
Dragons were dealt a further blow on 25 minutes when Aaron Wainwright left the field, but to the relief of Wales head coach Warren Gatland, the number eight returned after passing his head injury assessment (HIA).Dragons' best scoring chance of the half came when Scarlets wing Mee was overly complacent in dealing with Cai Evans' kick through for Dyer, but the ball rolled out to spare his blushes.Scarlets continued to attack with fluidity with a super Sam Lousi break almost setting up a try. It led to a string of penalties which Scarlets kicked to touch.Player of the match Marnus van de Merwe came close before Macloed broke free from the driving maul to cross on the half-hour mark.Scarlets pushed for the bonus-point but Dragons managed to hold them out until half-time, where no doubt they were dealt a stern word by Filo Tiatia who had been absent for the derby against Ospreys because of family commitments.
The bonus-point was wrapped up just after the break, and again it came from a Dragons error.The ball was spilled in contact which allowed Scarlets to break and despite having the overlap, Johnny Williams powered to the line which left Tom Rogers having to juggle the ball backwards before Mee eventually crossed. It was not pretty, but Scarlets did not mind.Momentum then shifted as replacements disrupted the flow of the game and Dyer showed his class with a elusive run deep into Scarlets territory, but the defence was able to scramble.Dragons kept the pressure and a series of pick and goes allowed Basham to power over from close range to give the away fans something to cheer.O'Brien was successful with the touchline conversion.
Dragons' tails were up and they should have scored a second, but a bit of white line fever from Shane Lewis-Hughes allowed Macloed to hold him up.Scarlets were then dealt a blow when Plumtree was shown a yellow card for not wrapping on a tackle on Lewis-Hughes on the hour mark.Dragons were able to take advantage and some great interplay between replacement scrum-half Che Hope and Anderson on the left wing allowed Anderson to go over in the corner. A Ioan Lloyd penalty halted the comeback, as Lousi once again began to pick holes in the defence.The game fizzled out as Scarlets failed to reach the heights of the first half, but the 7,605 crowd went home entertained. 
Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel said: "It was an important game for us in terms of picking up points, the league positions are so tight at the minute."I felt for us as well because we've lost four games and across all of the them there was only a four point difference in the whole total, so picking up that win was important for us."I think we played some good stuff, especially in that first 50 minutes, we were clinical in what we did."We were scrappy for the last 30, but we take the points and move on."Dragons head coach Filo Tiatia said: "I was disappointed in the first half, clearly we weren't at the races. We were flat, had no energy both sides of the ball and we conceded soft tries."In the second half they were a different team, there is still learning around."It's a short turnaround but you've just got to front up. If you're going to wear the jersey as a group, you've got to fill it."What they've done in the past has been okay, but just how do we push forward to compete against really good teams, that's where we're at."
Line-ups
Scarlets: Tom Rogers; Ellis Mee, Joe Roberts, Johnny Williams, Blair Murray; Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies; Alec Hepburn, Marnus van de Merwe, Henry Thomas, Alex Craig, Sam Lousi, Max Douglas, Josh Macleod (capt), Taine Plumtree.Replacements: Shaun Evans, Kemsley Mathias, Archer Holz,  Vaea Fifita, Jarrod Taylor, Archie Hughes, Ioan Lloyd, Eddie JamesDragons: Cai Evans; Rio Dyer, Jared Rosser, Aneurin Owen, Huw Anderson; Angus O'Brien (capt), Rhodri Williams; Rodrigo Martinez, Brodie Coghlan, Dmitri Arhip, Joe Davies, Ryan Woodman, Shane Lewis-Hughes, Taine Basham, Aaron Wainwright.Replacements: James Benjamin, Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths, Chris Coleman, Nick Thomas, Dan Lydiate, Che Hope, Will Reed, Harry Wilson.Sin bin: Plumtree (60) 
Officials
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)Assistant referees: Craig Evans & Mike English (WRU)TMO: Aled Griffiths (WRU)