Cardiff ran in nine tries as they thumped Dragons 55-21 in the first Welsh Boxing Day derby at the Cardiff Arms Park.
Rhys Carre, James Botham and Tomos Williams all dotted down twice as the Blue and Blacks wrapped up a try bonus point after 18 minutes.
Keiron Asseratti ran in a second-half score from 20 meters, which gave the hosts a 50-7 lead. Despite a brace for flanker Harrison Keddie and a penalty try, the Dragons suffered their 18th straight defeat to their East Wales rivals.
So, what did Cardiff do to inflict so much damage to their East Wales rivals?t?
Clinical Cardiff
One glaring difference between the two sides was how efficient they were in attack. At halftime, the hosts were averaging 6.43 points per entry into the 22.
The tries came in various ways, from rolling mauls to first phase set plays and some questionable Dragons defence.
Carre’s second try shows the defensive issues that the Dragons currently have, Tomos Williams fires a pass towards his loosehead props as it beats two Dragons forwards, Bradley Roberts is attempting to stop the host’s momentum by shooting out of the defensive line to make a tackle.
Instead of targeting Carre, he targets second row Rory Thornton, which creates the space for the ball-carrying prop to power his way over the line.
They switch it up for the third try, creating a dummy maul with Liam Belcher peeling around, the hooker gives a flat pass to centre Ben Thomas, who’s running a hard line and breaks through a poor tackle attempt from Taine Basham.
Tomos Williams wanted in on the action as Dragons winger Ashton Hewitt lost possession following a counter rucking from Josh Adams and Rey Lee-Lo, Teddy Williams makes a break against a disorganised defence after Belcher’s offload, with scrum half on hand to gather the offload from the lock to score.
Flanker Botham crossed for his first before scoring a second off a clever Cardiff maul.
Lock Williams, the lineout receiver pops the ball down to blindside flanker Alex Mann, with the 23-year-old second row acting as a decoy. The fake maul commits four Dragons forwards, with Botham powering over with some assistance off the pack.
Lee-Lo is still going at 37 years old
One of the standouts for the Blue and Blacks was Samoan international centre Lee-Lo who looks to have built a steady centre pairing alongside Thomas.
The 37-year-old made 113 meters with ball in hand, offloaded to Mason Grady in the build-up to Carre’s second try, before making a break from one of the many restarts in the first half.
Where next for the Dragons?
Dai Flanagan admitted his role as Dragons’ head coach was under pressure following their defeat.
The Dragons have only won twice in all competitions this term against the Ospreys and Oyonnax, under the current budgets of the four Welsh teams, it would seem a financial hit to sack any head coach.
They will now return to Rodney Parade as they welcome a struggling Scarlets side on New Year’s Day, improvement is needed if they are to pick up their second league win of the season.
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