Newport Gwent Dragons crashed to their third Celtic League loss in eight days as they lost 36-17 to the Scarlets. The loss completes a miserable week for The Dragons, which has seen them lose to Connacht and the Blues and their hopes of qualifying for next seasons Heineken Cup are on a knife edge.
The Dragons went in 24-3 down at half time with Scarlets and Wales wing Mark Jones scoring a superb hat-trick in the first half. He scored his three tries in the first half an hour with fellow wing Dafydd James crossing for a brace while Lee Byrne also got on the try-scoring sheet.
The Dragons tries came in the final quarter of the game with Nathan Brew and Jason Forster both scoring.
The Scarlets first try came after 14 minutes with Jones beating Jamie Ringer and Leigh Hinton to score following a superb 65m run. His second try came when Matthew Watkins put in a cross-field kick which fell into the hands of prop Iestyn Thomas who sent Jones clear in the corner. His third came when loose ball was spread wide to him on the half way line and he out paced James Ireland to claim his third.
The Dragons added a penalty through Hinton but when they were turned over following attacking ball James profited. He also scored a 65m try to clinch the bonus point for the West Wales region.
Despite being a man down the it was the Scarlets who scored first in the second half with Byrne crossing in the corner and James went in unopposed for his second.
However, The Dragons refused to give up and Brew found a gap in the Scarlets defence to score a try and they added a second from the restart after attacking from 60m with Forster claiming the touchdown.
Post-Match Reaction
“The turnovers were crucial – you can’t do that at any level, let alone against players of the calibre of Mark Jones. It’s been a difficult week for us – we’ve got ourselves into a hole and now it’s up to us to get out of it. We have three huge games against the Scottish regions to come and have to dig deep.” – Jason Forster
“I’m fortunate to be in a team that suits my style and wants to spin the ball. It’s been a barren few weeks, but the ball came my way today. We’ve had some decent performances but poor results lately and it was important to win against a committed Dragons side.” – Mark Jones
