Tiatia pleased as Dragons learn lessons

Filo Tiatia praised his Dragons for adapting and taking lessons from recent games as they pulled clear in the second half to defeat Scarlets 28-5 in the BKT United Rugby Championship at a jubilant Rodney Parade.

A first half try from influential playmaker Tinus de Beer edged the Men of Gwent ahead at the break before they turned up the pressure in the second period.

Scores from Oli Burrows, David Richards and a late effort from George Roberts secured a try bonus pointwin that lifted Dragons temporarily into tenth in the standings.

“I’m happy for the group and outcome,” said Tiatia. “It felt like we were in third gear in the first half and we didn’t take the opportunities the Scarlets gave us with the yellow card.

“But we came out and expressed ourselves in the second half and played free.

“I thought we were much better than last week, in terms of physicality and dominating. We were better today around some of the lessons we had from Cardiff.

“We gave some penalties away in the second half and got a final warning, but we adapted and were squeaky clean as a group, so I was pleased around areas we are trying to grow.

“We managed to keep them out, force errors, so it was a positive.”

Dragons have now won three games in a row at home for the first time since January 2024 and Tiatia is keen for his team to continue to build on what has been started over a successful period.

“It’s a building block,” said Tiatia. “What I will say is, our leadership group have been outstanding with demanding from each other.

“They have been our carpenters, putting pieces together, and this hasn’t happened by accident. We have done the basics well and demanded more from each other.

“There is mantra of how we do improve every day - this is the start and I am proud of them.

“There are always areas to improve. But I'm not taking any shine off today, there was a lot of good in the game. We wanted to put them under pressure at Rodney Parade. We did it pretty well.”