DRAGONS boss Dean Ryan said his players deserve their moment in the sun after their stunning win at the Scarlets ended a 13-game winless streak in style.

The Dragons upset the odds with a 38-27 United Rugby Championship triumph in Llanelli, a first success since beating Connacht in Galway in October.

It was a first victory in 14 visits to Parc y Scarlets and was earned by tries by centre Jack Dixon, flanker Taine Basham, wing Jared Rosser, hooker Taylor Davies and scrum-half Rhodri Williams.

The Dragons have endured a nightmare campaign but will now aim to finish with a flourish with a return against the Scarlets next weekend followed by clashes against winless Zebre, Ospreys, Cardiff and the Lions.

“I’m more pleased for others, for people that work so hard, fans, the chairman,” said director of rugby Ryan.

“I’ve been saying for weeks to take notice of Jack Dixon but for some reason you have to play well against the Scarlets to get noticed. Harrison Keddie the same.

“The players have had moments like that and not been able to close it out so they deserve their time in the sun enjoying that.”

South Wales Argus: WINNERS: Harri Keddie leads off his teamWINNERS: Harri Keddie leads off his team

The Dragons headed into the game fresh from a defeat to Gloucester when they let a 21-10 half-time lead slip.

History looked like it was about to repeat when the Scarlets went 27-21 up with 20 minutes to go but this time Ryan’s men responded to not only get the lead back but deny their hosts a losing bonus.

“We talked last week about being bolder when we are ahead because we handed a lot of possession back to Gloucester and then couldn’t stop them,” he said.

“You don’t always get the same situations again but this time we got a few moments that took the game away from the Scarlets.”

The Dragons were overpowered by the Cherry and Whites in the driving lineout but tightened up in that aspect against a Scarlets side deprived of lock Sam Lousi because of a late injury.

“Sometimes you can’t stop what the other side has got but this time we could. We solved their drive when they tried to come after us and they didn’t really have an answer, they were waiting for a spilled ball,” said Ryan.

“We solved a lot of things that we haven’t been able to solve in previous weeks; if we could have done that against the Sharks then it would have changed the game but we couldn’t.

“That’s a contest every week and recently we have had a lot of pressure there but some of our big players stood up.

“Will Rowlands was outstanding along with Ben Carter, who is still a young man let’s not forget.

Derbies are about internationals standing up and about those who work on the fringes being noticed, and we did all that.”