DRAGONS coach Ceri Jones has labelled the Scarlets as "pretty arrogant" for talking of their intention to chase the four-try bonus at Judgement Day.

The Rodney Parade region are huge underdogs for the first game of the double-header at Principality Stadium (kick-off 3pm).

They sit bottom of Conference B in the Guinness PRO14 while the Scarlets head to the capital with a slim chance of sneaking into the play-offs, which needs an unlikely Zebre victory against Benetton, and with the need to win to keep their hopes of Champions Cup qualification alive.

The west Walians are fifth in the table but will climb a place if they better Edinburgh's tally of match points from their trip to Glasgow.

That led to assistant coach Ioan Cunningham stating at the midweek press conference, when sat to Jones' right, that "a bonus point is extremely important and will come into the situation".

South Wales Argus:

The Dragons caretaker boss, who was interviewed for the role of head coach on Wednesday after holding the reins since Bernard Jackman's sacking in December, believes his side can be party poopers.

They won a first derby in four years when they beat the Ospreys in Newport at the end of last year, they were edged out twice by Cardiff Blues in tight affairs and battled hard in Llanelli and Swansea.

"We have to play our part in the game and get the performance that we know we put out there, as we have shown in the Welsh derbies this season," said Jones.

"Anything can happen off the back of that and it's pretty arrogant of the Scarlets to say that they are going to be going out there to chase the bonus point. But that's up to them and let's see what happens.

"We are men of Gwent and proud of what we do – we have shown in derbies that we can perform strongly and intend to do that again.

"We have got a steely determination to put our best performance on the field, then the result will take care of itself.

"They are pretty arrogant about where they are. Should they be beating us? Yeah, with the budget and squad they've got… but let's wait and see."

The Dragons have won just one of their last 21 league meetings with the Scarlets and were outmuscled when the sides met in Llanelli in January.

The week after they had ended their four-year derby drought with success against the Ospreys, Jones' men were put under pressure at the scrum by the hosts' all-Wales front row.

It was the same story at Principality Stadium last year but this afternoon the Dragons boast six seasoned campaigners in looseheads Ryan Bevington and Brok Harris, hookers Elliot Dee and Richard Hibbard and tightheads Leon Brown and Lloyd Fairbrother.

South Wales Argus:

"Unfortunately last time against the Scarlets we were depleted in the front row area and that's not going to be the case in this game," said Jones.

"We have a bit of making up to do from that and I truly believe if we put our best performance out there then we can be competitive with anyone in the league.

"If we can get our platform right then we can express ourselves. It's about us going toe-to-toe with the Scarlets."

The Dragons have never won at Judgement Day with five defeats to the Scarlets and a loss to the Ospreys in 2014.