Academy Head Coach Scott Sneddon admitted his young development side will have learned some harsh lessons from their 73-21 defeat to the Dragons at Rodney Parade.
The West Walians never recovered from conceding a clutch of first-half tries as the Dragons dominated a one-sided contest.
“We are obviously disappointed. We had prepped well during the week but came second best in almost every aspect of the game,” said Sneddon.
“The context behind it is we had a very young squad out, four boys under 18s and a number of boys graduating from last year’s 18s group.
“We have got to go away and take the lessons we have learned from this and be better for it.
“Dragons had experience, their nine and 10 controlled the game and the match proved that when you make errors at this level you get punished for them. You can’t react late otherwise you miss your opportunity and if you don’t get your defence right you concede 21 points very quickly.”
Scarlets’ tries came from hooker Joe Rees, scrum-half Rhodri Lewis and a long-range sprint from wing Iori Badham.
Sneddon added: “From a hit-out point of view it was a great opportunity and we need more of these games in the calendar because we need the boys to be exposed to a level that is closer to URC.”