Jones sparkles on debut as Dragons dent Cardiff play-off hopes

The Blues' failure to take anything, even a losing bonus point, from their delayed Boxing Day derby with the Dragons means they stay just one point ahead of the Ospreys in fourth place.

And, with the top four contesting the play-offs, the tension will be high next weekend as the Blues face another tough Welsh derby at The Scarlets while the Ospreys will be going all-out for a bonus-point win at basement side Aironi.

The Blues wanted to wrap things up at Newport but the Dragons threw a spanner in the works right from the start.

It was also a red letter day for teenager Steffan Jones, drafted in from Cross Keys to cover for the Dragons' crisis at full-back. The scoring star in the Welsh Premiership went over for a debut try on seven minutes when he burst through a gap in the Blues' defence between full-back Dan Fish and lock Bradley Davies to dive over in the corner.

And he grabbed a late penalty from 50 metres which helped to deny the Blues a losing bonus point. Aled Brew and Andrew Coombs also crossed for the Dragons, while scrum-half Wayne Evans put the cherry on the cake for the home side with a drop-goal from ten metres right at the death.

Sam Warburton and Xavier Rush grabbed Cardiff's tries either side of half-time.