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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Ben James

'Do we need to beat the Scarlets to get more equal funding?' Dean Ryan's pointed statement in press conference

The Dragons may have won at Parc y Scarlets for the first time, but director of rugby Dean Ryan insists it means little without further backing financially.

Having not won since October, the Gwent side finally secured their second victory of the season with a 38-27 triumph over the Scarlets in Llanelli - bringing to an end a run of 13 matches without a win.

But with calls for change in Welsh rugby louder than ever, and the Dragons still potentially on course for their worst season ever, debates over finances will continue to rage on.

Read more: Dean Ryan says head injuries not taken seriously enough in rugby following controversial Jonathan Davies yellow card

"It’s a marker in history but I am not sure what statement it makes," said Ryan about their maiden victory at Parc y Scarlets. "Do we need to beat the Scarlets to get more equality in funding?

"We clearly have a lot of really good guys working really hard but we also look at it across the year when there are plenty of times when we are under-resourced.

"The night in Llanelli was fantastic for everyone that believes in the Dragons, but it doesn’t stop us arguing the point on lots of other fronts."

The Welsh Rugby Union recently confirmed that the £20m CLBILS loan, taken out by the union to cover the costs of paying the four professional sides for the services of players, had been split as follows, with the Dragons receiving £4.5m, Cardiff and Ospreys receiving £5m and the Scarlets getting £5.5m.

The two sides will face each other again next week, almost a year to the day since the Dragons last won on home soil - coincidentally against the west Walians in a Rainbow Cup match. Ending their long wait for a victory at Rodney Parade will be at the forefront of coaches and players' minds in the coming days, having already ended one unwanted streak on the weekend.

Victory next week would secure the Dragons their first league double over the Scarlets since 2007/08, with their last double over any Welsh rival being back in 2010/11.

Afterwards, Ryan insisted there was more to come from his Dragons side.

"Each week is another contest, whether we had won or lost at the Scarlets," he said. "What we are looking for is to have confidence in the things that we are trying to do, and do them more often.

"You can’t live your life on ‘did we win?’, you can live your life on ‘did we do the things that we talked about?’.

"It will be a big test for us to go back home and back up the same levels of performance and probably be better, because I think we had more out there.

"That wasn’t us at our best by any means, there is a lot of scope for us to do some things better."

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