Dragons Men Under-18s suffered a 35-5 defeat at the hands of Scarlets Under-18s at the Centre of Excellence in Ystrad Mynach on Wednesday evening.
The home side were missing a host of the Academy players that won the Regional Age Grade Championship last season, as they are currently away on international duty.
In a game of three 25-minute periods, it was the Scarlets who enjoyed the first period as they went into a 21-5 lead despite a well worked try from wing Harry Harkins.
The visitors opened the scoring early with a counter-attack from deep allowing their fly half to make a break before offloading to the wing to finish. The extras were added for a 7-0 lead after five minutes.
Dragons hit back instantly with a lovely backs move off from the line-out and wing Harkins showed his blistering pace to finish. Greenman missed the extras.
It wasn’t long, however, before Scarlets extended their lead with a dominant driving maul seeing their hooker score from the back. Extras were added once more.
A third try came quickly for the visitors as another attack from deep - alongside some poor Dragons defending - allowed the Scarlets second row to score under the sticks. Extras were added to extend the lead to 21-5.
Scarlets were chasing a fourth before the first break, but some resilient defending kept the score the same heading into the first break.
Dragons were down to 14 men in the second 25 minute period, with Evan Saltmarsh sent to the sin-bin for collapsing the Scarlets maul in a dangerous position.
Dragons, though, managed the spell well but in what was a quiet second period with neither team finding a breakthrough.
The third period started well for the hosts and after a Sam Llewellyn break the ball was slowed down illegally and Scarlets had a man sent to the sin-bin for the offence.
Despite being down to 14 men it was the Scarlets who got the next score with some nice hands down the blindside before the ball was passed inside for the second row to score. Extras were added to extend the lead to 23 points.
The hosts suffered a double blow moments later as a replacement wing gathered the free ball on the floor and used his pace to score.
Both teams were searching for that final score, but mistakes from both sides ensured the scoreline remained the same with Scarlets leaving Ystrad Mynach with the victory.
Dragons: Tate Shaw, Harry Harkins, Tye Davies, Oscar Watkins, Tom Evans, Sonny Greenman, Shay Lewis; Dan Wall, Dylan Roberts, Buster Bodkin, Ethan Evans, Matthew Hall, Alex Uwimana, Tomoya Adachi (c), Taran Moa
Replacements: Forwards: Lewis Jones, Matty Cotton, Barney Thomas-Hewartson, Evan Saltmarsh, Evan Barber, Iwan Dark, Will Morgan, Jack Gadd, Tom Wilton, Sam Llewellyn, Max Gregory, Cameron Stewart. Backs: Riah Jones, Ben Elliott, Jacob Baghurst, Tomi Lewis, Carter Pritchard, Declan Dawkins, Rhys Smith, Cameron Tovey
