But the Scarlets Coach believes his players need to maintain the excellent home record and continue making Stradey Park into a fortress.

Moriarty, who played for Wales in the 1987 Rugby World Cup said: "We have made Stradey into a fortress and it's such a difficult place for visiting teams to come to. Teams know that when they come down here. They know they will be involved in a flowing game with plenty of passion, both on and off the pitch.

"It's great having the local derbies at the start of the season. We know what to expect from the Dragons but we have prepared well over the summer and are looking to take ourselves forward. It should be a close match because we are both evenly matched in terms of strength in our squads.

"We will have players missing but now it's up to the youngsters to put their hands up in the early part of the season. It's a great opportunity for them to grab a regular place in the starting line-up."

The Scarlets finished 4th in the competition last year but Moriarty believes the signs are looking promising to finish higher in the current campaign.

He said: "We won in the first year of the Celtic League, which was also in a Rugby World Cup season, so we hope the omens are on our side. Last season we were just a bit unlucky – we played Leicester in the Heineken Cup on the Saturday and had to play the Ospreys on the following Tuesday. That ended our Magners campaign."

Scarlets: Morgan Stoddart; Garan Evans, Regan King, Gavin Evans, Matthew Watkins; Ceiron Thomas, Gavin Cattle; Phil John, James Hayter, Deacon Manu, Adam Eustace, Dominic Day, Dafydd Jones, James Bater (capt), Nathan Thomas

Replacements: Iestyn Thomas, Ken Owens, Vernon Cooper, Jon Edwards, Liam Davies, Rhys Priestland, Jonathan Davies

Dragons: M Thomas; G Wyatt, P Dollman, A Smith, R Mustoe; A Thomas, A Williams; A Black, S Jones, R Thomas, A Jones, L Charteris (capt), J Ringer, N Fitisemanu, R Parks

Replacements: H Gustafson, B Daly, P Sidoli, Dan Lydiate, W Evans, G McCarthy, G Maule