• Cardiff Blues 16 The Dragons 12
• Jarod Evans drives his team to deserved victory
Touts were selling tickets for this match ahead of a rare sellout for a regional game. Locked gates used to be the norm in Wales on 26 December, when local derbies abounded and forwards used to take Boxing Day literally. But the padlocks have long rusted.
Welsh rugby is now dominated and financially driven by the national side, and a new funding mechanism for the four regions is designed to take the inflationary pressure off them by capping the wages for the 38 players in the Wales squad who are divided into pay bands.
