Bernard Jackman has vowed his Dragons will never again be as desperately poor as they were in defeat to the Scarlets on Friday night.
Jackman saw his low quality side thumped 47-13 by the Guinness Pro14 champions in a match that only illustrated the gulf in standards between Wales’s leading region and their worst.
The Scarlets scored seven tries, could easily have reached double figures, and left the field mildly irritated with themselves for conceding one late score to a team that barely deserved even that meagre reward.
With four defeats on the trot, the Dragons appear to have hit rock bottom – the lift provided by their Irish head coach’s enthusiasm and dynamism after his arrival at the start of the season now dissipated by the realities of a lack of depth and ability.
All he could offer was defiance in a declaration that next time at Parc Y Scarlets things would be different.
“We have new recruits coming in next season,” said Jackman. “The Dragons will never come here again and be as uncompetitive. That is the last time we come in and put in a performance like that.
“We need reinforcements and we need to get our injury list sorted out. We had 12 or 13 front line players unavailable and although we saw bright moments from the youngsters the average age was only 22, so it was always going to be a big ask.
“But some of the senior players didn’t play to the level we expected of them.
“We have to change, get our fit players back and bring in some new and young players and make sure we build a region we can be proud of. The Dragons will then be a far different outfit.”
For Scarlets coach Wayne Pivac it was job done – an efficient dismantling of opposition that fell apart all too easily as the champions proved they are way ahead of the rest in Wales.
Soon after the final whistle, Pivac was turning his attention towards a rather tougher challenge for his team – their European Champions Cup tie at Bath next Friday where they can still keep alive their hopes of making the knockout stages.
“We got what we wanted out of the game in terms of the five points,” said Pivac.
“We set a defensive target and didn’t quite reach that. But at the end of the day we are happy to get the win and get the points over these three games.
“It’s now game on at Bath. To stay alive in the competition we need to go there and put in a good performance. Hopefully, we have come through today without any new injuries and we have been able to rest a few guys.”
James Davies, Tom Prydie, Dan Jones, Aled Davies, Aaron Shingler, Will Boyde and Rhys Jones all crossed for tries against a Dragons side whose lineout and scrum malfunctioned badly all evening.
Sarel Pretorius’ try was little consolation for the Dragons who have now lost 30 games in a row away from home.
The bonus-point win consolidates the Scarlets’ position at the top of Conference B heading into a fortnight of European rugby.
While the Scarlets visit Bath, the Dragons travel to face Bordeaux-Begles in the Challenge Cup next Saturday.
