NEWPORT Gwent Dragons threw away a commanding lead to suffer a pre-season defeat to the Scarlets at Rodney Parade but an early injury to Nick Crosswell will be of more concern.

Tries by wing Tom Prydie, hooker Rhys Thomas and centre Jack Dixon look set to earn the derby spoils for the hosts, who used a whopping 38 players.

Yet a late rally by the west Walians, and a pair of interception tries, turned the game around in the closing stages.

It means that the Dragons have lost their title of being kings of the pre-season friendly – it had been three years since they lost in the sweltering heat of Biarritz and director of rugby Lyn Jones was denied a perfect six from six since taking over in the hotseat.

Not that such a record matters a jot in September but there were still some encouraging signs against their friends from the west.

Ashton Hewitt staked a claim for a spot on the wing with a lively display, there is an almighty selection headache in the back row and Dixon looked good on his return after a summer with Wales. Oh, and the new kit looked sharp.

There were naturally aspects that need sharpening up but the Dragons should step things up a bit at the Cardiff Blues next Saturday before their Guinness Pro12 opener at Connacht.

No league points were up for grabs and the promise of substitutions galore but the derby clash – the Scarlets’ only visit of the season because of Judgement Day – attracted a decent crowd of 4,153.

In terms of preparation it was another useful exercise with the weather even playing its part in the closing stages – it wouldn’t be a Friday night at Rodney Parade without some rain.

It was certainly a step up in quality of opposition from tenacious Nottingham with the Scarlets using it as their main friendly rather than next weekend’s fixture with Bedford.

The Dragons suffered a horror start when Kiwi number eight Crosswell was forced off after less than two minutes – forget defeats or even performances, injuries are the stuff of nightmares in pre-season.

That ended his evening but thankfully he was able to hobble off of his own steam after getting treatment to his right knee then do some light jogging in the dead ball area. Fingers crossed the damage will be minimal.

The hosts opened the scoring on 14 minutes when full-back Geraint Rhys Jones slotted over a penalty after the Scarlets were pinged for offside when defending a move off a five-metre lineout.

The visitors went back down the other end and reaped the rewards of turning down three points to go for the corner in terms of earning a 10-minute man advantage.

Captain Rhys Thomas was sin-binned for not releasing after the tackle but his teammates dug deep and some snarling defence, with flanker Ollie Griffiths prominent, earned a penalty to release the pressure.

Their reward came when the 14-man Dragons crossed for the first try of the evening down the right, lively wing Ashton Hewitt dancing through before the ball was worked right for Tom Prydie to canter over for an 8-0 lead.

And they put the squeeze on before the break through their driving lineout – first earning a yellow card for ex-Cross Keys lock Lewis Rawlins and then crossing through captain Thomas for a 13-0 advantage.

However, there was still time for the Scarlets to open their account to make it 13-5 with the final play of the half, centre Gareth Owen dotting down on the right after the Dragons defence had been stressed and stretched inside the 22.

The Dragons rang the changes after the break but opted to use the same weapon to try and reassert themselves.

A penalty was kicked to the corner and while the Scarlets defended that well, pick and drives did the job with centre Jack Dixon powering over close to the sticks on his return from Wales duty.

Fly-half Angus O’Brien added the simple conversion to make it 20-5 but the Scarlets struck back approaching the hour when wing Tom Williams snaffled an interception to race over from 60 metres, just evading full-back Carl Meyer’s desperate tackle to make it in down the right.

Steve Shingler’s excellent conversion made it 20-12 and the Scarlets grew into the game while the Dragons’ cohesion was understandably disrupted by the number of changes to their side.

The visiting fly-half banged over a penalty to make it a one-score game entering the final 15 minutes.

And they took the spoils thanks to Dan Jones dancing over with five minutes left and Williams’ second interception.

The Dragons will hope the loss is merely a pre-season speedbump.

Dragons first half: G R Jones, T Prydie, B Nightingale, R Wardle, A Hewitt (M Pewtner 35), D Jones (A O’Brien 35), C Davies (L Jones 35), P Price (L Garrett 35), R Thomas (captain), S Knight (L Fairbrother 35), C Hill, M Screech, L Evans, O Griffiths (J Benjamin 35), N Crosswell (E Jackson 2, H Gustafson 20- 30).

Dragons second half: C Meyer, M Pewtner (N Scott 65), A Warren, J Dixon, A Brew, A O'Brien (J Tovey 65), L Jones (S Pretorius 65), L Garrett (B Stankovich 65), H Gustafson (E Dee 52), L Fairbrother (A Jeffries 65), R Landman, J Davies, J Thomas, J Benjamin (H Keddie 75), E Jackson (N Cudd 58).

Scorers: tries – T Prydie, R Thomas, J Dixon; conversion – A O’Brien; penalty – A O’Brien

Yellow card: R Thomas

Scarlets: S Evans, T Williams, R King, G Owen, H Parkes (captain), S Shingler, A Davies, D Evans, K Myhill, P Edwards, L Rawlins, T Price, T Phillips, J Davies, M Allen. Replacements: E Phillips, B Leung, W Taylor, G Earle, W Boyde, R Williams, D Jones, I Nicholas, J Jones, A Thomas.

Scorers: tries – G Owen, T Williams (2), D Jones; conversions – S Shingler, D Jones (2); penalty – S Shingler

Yellow card: L Rawlins

Referee: Ben Whitehouse (Welsh Rugby Union)

Attendance: 4,153