NEWPORT Gwent Dragons captain Lewis Evans admits he and his forwards will be asking “serious questions” of themselves after Friday night’s toothless performance against the Scarlets.

That tame display by their pack saw them dominated by a home eight at Parc y Scarlets who took them to the cleaners.

It laid the foundation for a comfortable 24-13 victory for the Scarlets, despite the Dragons looking at one stage as if they might pull off a remarkable comeback.

But that would have glossed over some alarming deficiencies in the visitors’ forward play, particularly against a Scarlets scrum often destroyed by quality opposition.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Dragons lineout went to pieces in the second half once Hugh Gustafson, a converted loosehead prop, took over the hooking duties from Steve Jones.

Back rower Evans admitted their performance at the coal face just wasn’t good enough, a trip to face Wasps for their opening Amlin Challenge Cup clash looming on Saturday.

“Our forwards did get outdone in the set piece and it’s incredibly frustrating because we did work hard on it,” he said.

“We just need to start learning some tough lessons and when we go into our analysis on Monday – we need to ask some serious questions of ourselves.”

The game was played in foul conditions as the rain swept down in Llanelli, making for slippery conditions that the Dragons, apart from an encouraging start, never got to grips with.

Dragons head coach Darren Edwards agreed that their forward effort and tactical game were found wanting.

“Rugby doesn’t change however many years it has been going and on a night like that you need a good set piece platform and a good kicking game,” he said.

“You really need those two aspects and they let us down on the night.”