Cardiff Blues snatch victory with late try against Dragons
ANGUS O’Brien’s late try proved just enough for Scarlets to win a dour West Wales derby at Parc y Scarlets.
O’Brien was a late call-up to the starting line-up following Johnny McNicholl’s late withdrawal, and his try broke Ospreys’ hearts after they had led for most of the match.
It was rough justice as Ospreys had to surrender home advantage due to the pitch at the Liberty Stadium being re-laid and they did score the best try of the game through Reuben Morgan-Williams.
Ospreys’ head coach, Toby Booth, said: “Scarlets are the flag-bearers for Wales so it’s devastating to lose by two points when we had a good opportunity to win.
“But I don’t think we were ever in control of the game as conditions were very difficult and it was the arm-wrestle we expected.”
Despite playing with a limited game plan – George North didn’t receive a pass until the 62nd minute – Ospreys frustrated their opponents with some determined tackling with Justin Tipuric at the forefront.
They also had to rely on Tipuric to secure some lineout ball as the absence of Alun Wyn Jones and hooker Sam Parry caused severe malfunction in that area.
They had the better goalkicker in Stephen Myler, who missed only when the ball fell from the tee as he attempted the conversion and his three successes nearly steered Ospreys home.
However, Scarlets should have won more comfortably as they had the better of territory and possession but poor handling cost them dear. They were always the more inventive side and the introduction of Blade Thomson and Tevita Ratuva
made for an improved effort in the final quarter.
Their boss, Glenn Delaney, who won the battle of the former London Irish coaches, said: “We try to play open rugby come rain or shine.
“However we had to readdress the situation at half-time as we were disappointed by the penalty count against us.
“We looked a bit rusty but we stayed in the fight and took our chance to win it at the end.”
Ospreys lost a couple of lineouts which allowed their opponents to exert early pressure but Scarlets couldn’t capitalise despite mounting a succession of close-range forward drives.
So it was against the run of play when Myler kicked his side into the lead with a straightforward penalty. This was one of six penalties conceded by Scarlets in the first 16 minutes and they suffered a further setback when wing Tom Rogers was forced off with a leg injury.
After a featureless first quarter the game sprung into life with an excellent solo try from MorganWilliams. Scarlets lost possession 35 metres out at a ruck for the scrum-half to sell a dummy before racing away and outpacing O’Brien for a superb score.
Dan Jones put Scarlets on the scoreboard with a penalty but missed from 30 metres with his kick rebounding off a post. His side nearly made amends when Steff Hughes put in a well-judged cross-field kick but Steff Evans was unable to gather the ball with not a defender in sight.
With the last kick of the half, O’Brien missed with a long range attempt so Ospreys were able to retain their 8-3 lead at the interval.
Two minutes after the restart, Myler had an opportunity from a similar range and he made no mistake before he and Jones exchanged penalties.
Both sides brought on their experienced scrumhalves, Rhys Webb for Ospreys and Gareth Davies for Scarlets, before Jones kicked his third to set up a tense finish.
Aimless kicking from Ospreys surrendered territory and O’Brien capitalised by latching onto a welltimed pass from Blade Thomson to race past two defenders to score with Jones’ conversion proving decisive.