Cardiff Blues 10 – 16 Scarlets
West turned out to be best in the big Welsh Magners League derby as the Scarlets dominated the second half at the Cardiff City Stadium to rock the Blues and run out 16-10 winners.
West turned out to be best in the big Welsh Magners League derby as the Scarlets dominated the second half at the Cardiff City Stadium to rock the Blues and run out 16-10 winners.
It was a win that was good enough to hoist the Scarlets above the Blues into second place in the Magners League table and erase the bitter memory of their Heineken Cup hammering at Leicester five days earlier.
Even though they bombed three great try scoring chances, the Scarlets conjured up a great score at the start of the final quarter to take the lead they deserved and hold on for a famous win and inflict the first home defeat on the Blues this season.
The visitors started with their two British & Irish Lions, Matthew Rees and Stephen Jones, on the bench, but still managed to give the Blues a torrid time up front and tough time keeping their attackers in check behind the scrum.
Had the Scarlets taken all their chances they would have been out of sight. Rhys Priestland, rightly named as Magners Man of the Match for his 14 point contribution, missed two easy penalties in the first half and the TMO ruled out tries when Iestyn Thomas and Ben Morgan lost the ball over the line.
Then they bombed a third try scoring chance at the start of the second period as Regan King’s pass out of a tackle to Morgan Stoddart was adjudged forward and another long range penalty from Priestland drifted wide.
The Blues lost both back row man Andries Pretorious and scrum half Richie Rees to the sin-bin in the first half – the Scarlets also saw wing Morgan Stoddart take a 10 minute breather and then lost Dom Day in the final few seconds – as nerves got the better of both sides in a penalty strewn opening.
Priestland gave the visitors the lead with a 10th minute penalty, notched another 15 minutes later and got a third just before the break to cut the gap to a single point. But he crucially missed with two other simple shots.
His opposite number, Ceri Sweeney, took his league tally through the 500 points barrier with his equalising penalty on 14 minutes and then rounded off a sustained period of pressure from the Blues forwards with a try at the posts which he also converted.
That score owed much to the silky skills of Rees as he pulled in two defenders to tackle him before offloading to his half-back partner for a simple run in.
The Scarlets dominated possession in the second half, kept their forward effort going, kept their patience and hit the front just after the hour.
Stephen Jones paved the way for their first try with a neat cross kick that Scottish wing Sean Lamont palmed down into the arms of Priestland, who raced 30 metres to the line for a try which Jones improved.
