United Rugby Championship
Dragons (7) 28
Tries: de Beer, Burrows, Richards, Roberts Cons: O’Brien 4
Scarlets (5) 5
Try: Mee
Dragons climbed to 10th in the United Rugby Championship (URC) with a comprehensive 28-5 derby win against rock bottom Scarlets in Newport.
The Rodney Parade club propped up the URC in a nightmare 2024-25, but their winter resurgence continued with a third home win on the bounce.
Dragons led 7-5 after a drab first half thanks to Angus O’Brien’s conversion of fly-half Tinus de Beer’s try in the eighth minute, with the extras missed when Scarlets wing Ellis Mee went over after 34 minutes.
The visitors lost lock Max Douglas to a 20-minute red card almost immediately after the restart and were made to pay.
Dragons moved into a 21-5 lead with tries by hooker Oli Burrows and wing David Richards and clinched their bonus in the 75th minute through replacement hooker George Roberts.
Defeat leaves Scarlets, who made the play-offs last season, facing plenty of questions as they look up at everyone in the URC after festive losses to Ospreys and Dragons.
Dragons have been strong performers at Rodney Parade in 2025-26 and were looking for a hat-trick of wins after beating Lyon and Connacht before Christmas.
The last time they had won three on the spin on home soil was on New Year’s Day in 2024 when they turned over Scarlets after previously beating Oyonnax and Ospreys under Dai Flanagan.
Dragons were spirited in a 22-19 defeat at Cardiff on 26 December, but this time ended an eight-game winless streak in Welsh derbies.
Newcastle are the next visitors to Rodney Parade in the Challenge Cup when Filo Tiatia’s side, who first head to Benetton, will hope home advantage can help earn a last 16 tie.
Meanwhile Scarlets host Pau knowing that a bonus-point win could be enough for qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions Cup, with Dwayne Peel’s men then travelling to Northampton.
Dragons struck first in the eighth minute when, after a driving line-out and centre Aneurin Owen went close, fly-half de Beer ran a hard line to go under the posts for a try that full-back O’Brien converted.
Scarlets got on the wrong side of referee Ben Connor with an indisciplined start and a fifth offence inside 24 minutes led to lock Harvey Cuckson being shown a yellow card for a no-arms tackle.
The visitors managed the sin-bin period without any more damage to the scoreline and struck as soon as they were restored to 15 men.
Hooker Marnus van derby Merwe flicked the ball back to Mee when a driving line-out was stopped and the wing reached over for a 35th-minute score.
Fly-half Joe Hawkins was wide with the conversion, as he had been with an earlier penalty, and was relieved to see O’Brien fail with what looked like a simple three-pointer after a strong scrum.
An error-strewn half was extended thanks to a mistake by the officials with the clock in the red – a scrum was needed after it was wrongly deemed that a Scarlets foot hit the touchline in an attack – but the visitors wasted a final chance in the 22 and it remained 7-5.
Scarlets lock Douglas was shown yellow for a dangerous clearout on Harri Keddie soon after the restart – it would eventually be upgraded to a 20-minute red – and this time Dragons made the visitors pay.
The penalty was kicked to the corner and eventually hooker Burrows powered over, O’Brien making it 14-5.
It got better in the 48th minute when Richards came off his wing to hit a short ball by scrum-half Che Hope to burst through and then beat last man Ioan Nicholas, with the extras added again.
Scarlets did not threaten to make a game of it and Dragons were able to hunt a four-try bonus in the closing stages.
It came with five minutes to go when Roberts, signed from Doncaster last month because of a hooker crisis, finished impressively from close range.
The north Walian was denied a barn-storming second when it was chalked off for obstruction, but it was still a dominant Dragons win.
Dragons: O’Brien (co-capt); D Richards, Inisi, Owen, E Rosser; de Beer, Hope; Martinez, Burrows, Hunt, Woodman, Carter (co-capt), Keddie, Beddall, Wainwright.
Replacements: G Roberts, W Jones, Dlamini, Douglas, Young, R Williams, Westwood, Anderson.
Scarlets: Nicholas; Rogers, Roberts, James, Mee; Hawkins, G Davies; Mathias, van der Merwe, H Thomas, Douglas, Cuckson, Plumtree, Macleod (capt), Anderson.
Replacements: Elias, J Morse, H O’Connor, J Price, D Davis, A Hughes, Leggatt-Jones, Page.
Yellow cards: Cuckson 24′.
20-minute red card: Douglas 43′
Referee: Ben Connor (WRU)
Assistant referees: Carwyn Sion & Gareth Newman (WRU)
TMO: Aled Griffiths (WRU)
Attendance: 8,369
