Â
The Scarlets fly half banged over a conversion and three penalties but it was his late try which finally repelled the resistance of a stubborn Dragons side.
The match was low on quality but three yellow cards (two to Dragons Aled Brew and Gavin Thomas and one to Scarlets centre Jonathan Davies) didn’t help the flow of the encounter either.
Dan Newton thought he had scored a brilliant cover tackle by winger Adam Hughes prevented the Scarlets full back from touching down. Priestland also missed a couple of easy penalties to compound Scarlets fans’ mounting frustrations.
Against the run of play the visitors entered the interval 10-3 ahead thanks to a try by scrum Wayne Evans right on the stroke of halftime. Jason Tovey intelligently chipped infield where Evans regathered to fend off the challenge of Dan Newton before sliding over in Morgan Stoddart’s tackle.
The Scarlets, still realing from their thumping by the Ospreys last week, struck back immediately after the break when former Dragon centre Gareth Maule picked up a bouncing ball and raced over.
The Dragons missed a golden opportunity to draw level on 71 minutes when Tovey hit an upright. The Scarlets made the most of the error as Priestland raced over for the Scarlets’ second try.
As the match entered injury time Brew cut the deficit to three points with a try after a kick ahead by Tovey, but there was still time for a third Priestland penalty to seal the home side’s success.
