Llanelli Scarlets 23 Newport Gwent Dragons 30

An unbiassed observer might comment that Llanelli will hope not to play worse than this all eason, but the Dragons might fear they won't play any better.
The Scarlets handed the Dragons a twenty point advantage in as many minutes, betraying a rustiness that suggests their pre-season hasn't gone well. The Dragons, on the other hand, were belying the pre-match comments of their coach who was less Tina Turner than Morrissey in his outlook. Turner has been quick to complain that he hasn't been given the money to spend that other Welsh coaches have enjoyed. Against a ragged and ineffectual Scarlets pack in the first half of this game any spending by the Scarlets appeared to have been wasted.
The wheels came off for the Scarlets from the first kick off. Richard Mustoe cut the Scarlets defence to pieces by the simple tactic of running to where the ball was going to land, and catching it when it arrived. Add in some poor quality tackling from the Scarlets defence and Rhys Thomas was over for an astonishing try. Add in the conversion and a penalty for from Aled Thomas and a 10-0 lead looked faintly unbelievable. Just as the Scarlets started to claw their way back into the game a Gareth Wyatt interception took the score out to 17-0, before another conversion and subsequent penalty by Thomas took the score to a frankly surreal 20-3 by half time.

More sober Dragons fans than your correspondent will have noted, despite the score, that the Dragons weren't entirely convincing value for their lead. Despite a clever kicking game from Thomas and Andy Williams, the forwards struggled to assert themselves over a Llanelli 8 who made best use of all the latitude allowed them by the referee. On defence the Dragons' best friend was the ineptitude of a Llanelli back line whose error rate was implausibly high, allied to a Llanelli game plan that eschewed forward effort for an over dependence on midfield moves that simply ran headlong into the packed but narrow Dragons defence.

The doubts of those more sober Dragons fans were made concrete at the start of the second half, as the Scarlets set aside their first half reticence and tried to grab the game by the scruff of its neck. Judging by the way in which the referee's decisions started to routinely go against the Dragons it was hard not to wonder if it was just the Scarlets players who had received a blistering pep talk from Phil Davies at half time.

Tries from Garan Evans and Iestyn Thomas, who had transformed the Scarlets front row, ensued as Llanelli raised the tempo of their game and used the ball and field position that the Dragons' naive approach to discipline afforded them. The naivety and foolhardiness of the Dragons was epitomized when Aled Thomas was sinbinned for an attempted foul that achieved nothing except to capture the attention of a ref who was increasingly disenchanted with the Dragons approach to the game. Add in the three points for the penalty awarded to compensate Llanelli for Aled Thomas not being able to kick one of their players and it looked as if once again Turner's Dragons were to have their fire extinguished late in the game.

Not this time. Another opportunistic Dragons attack set up a stunning field position from which Andy Williams managed to worm his way over the line to the satisfaction of the TMO, if not the Llanelli players and supporters.

Despite the Dragons best efforts to concede field position and ball the Scarlets failed to close the gap sufficiently before the final whistle - the bad tempered fist fight on the touchline just before the final whistle spoke volumes about the frustration of a Llanelli side who couldn't believe the extent of their own inadequacies.

For the Dragons there was much to be hopeful about, and much to fear. In the spine of the team Steve Jones looked close to back to his abrasive best, even if he was ultimately substituted to reduce the penalty count against him, but Fitisemanu was subdued in manner and tentative in his handling. Luke Charteris has played better than he did today, and will hopefully captain more assertively in future. By way of compensation Richard Parkes looked comfortable at this level, and capable of raising his game when he has to compete for a place in the back row with the peerless Colin Charvis.

Behind the scrum Andy Williams was a competent game manager and a brave general, sure in his choices about when he had to lead from the front. He'll need many more such performances while he is playing inside a juvenile midfield of Thomas, Smith and Dolman. All three showed glimpses of their promise, but all three made errors of judgement that would have been more costly against sides less ill-equipped to take advantage of them than this Scarlets side.

And yet, tonight, it's the Dragons who will take most comfort from the Magners League table. In a season where away wins are all too scarce, this one will be treasured by Dragons fans for reasons that are pragmatic as well as sectarian.