The Scarlets were made to dig deep to earn a vital bonus point victory over their Welsh regional rivals on an afternoon of high drama in the Welsh capital.
Dwayne Peel’s side knew that only a win would do in their quest to keep their outside chances alive of an end of season place in the play-offs.
After trailing 20-7 early in the second half against spirited opponents, two yellow cards and a couple of crucial errors cost the Dragons their second win of the season.
Jarrod Rosser had earlier scored two tries for Dragons either side of fellow wing Ashton Hewitt touching down, with fly-half Angus O’Brien converting one and adding two penalties.
Props Henry Thomas and Alec Hepburn had got Scarlets back into the game, before flanker Vaea Fifita got hopes of talk of a comeback alive deep in the second-half.
With the clock running down it would be Wales back Blair Murray who would be the hero scoring Scarlets’ fourth try to earn a bonus point, and a crucial victory for the West Wallians.
Ioan Lloyd converted all four conversions on the night, whilst slotting over a late penalty to seal the win.
Scarlets climb two places to ninth in the URC table just two points off Stormers and Munster who are currently occupying the final two play-off placings with three rounds of fixtures to play.
Leaders Leinster will travel to Llanelli in a weeks time to face the Scarlets, before a mini tour of South Africa sees back-to-back fixtures against the Lions and Sharks to decide the West Wallians destiny in the table.
“It was a tough game out there,” said man-of-the-match Lousi after the game.
“We knew in the week that the Dragons wouldn’t go away, and we didn’t want to look past where they are in the ladder.
“I thought they showed up, especially in the second bit of the first half.
“I thought then the second half we used the messages from half-time and executed them.
“The bench really came on and made an impact for us, and overall, it was really good.”
[Lead image: Scarlets Rugby]
