Jarrod Evans leads Cardiff to derby win over Scarlets
JARROD Evans gave watching Wales coach Wayne Pivac a firm nudge by producing the only moment of class in a dour derby which saw Blues seal a quickfire double over their rivals.
Superb awareness and a delightful off-load from Evans sent Matthew Morgan racing away to give Blues an early lead, which they never surrendered.
Blues interim head coach Dai Young, returning to the region after a nine year absence, missed Evans’ magic as he was delayed by a road accident.
Young said: “It was frustrating as I missed the first 15 minutes by being stationary on the motorway for four and a half hours.
“But I have been watching Jarrod from afar and he is a huge talent. He’s level headed and is a big part of the Blues. Recently he’s had to shoulder a lot of the burden but I believe there’s a bit more to come.
“You can never underestimate a win down here – it’s a tough place to come so you have to savour it.”
Full blown trial games are a thing of the past but this was as near as you could get to it in the modern era with 16 of the Welsh squad in their final competitive action before Pivac announces his team to face Ireland on February 7.
Scarlets forwards Jake Ball and Wyn Jones furthered their cause with all-action performances but Ryan Elias didn’t impress as the home lineout malfunctioned and centres Jonathan Davies and Johnny Williams lacked inspiration.
Tomos Williams won the scrum-half battle against Gareth Davies but two players who were omitted from the squad, James Botham and Johnny McNicholl, were among the leading performers on the night.
Scarlets dominated early possession and territory but they couldn’t capitalise and were made to pay with Morgan’s try. Evans converted and added a penalty to give his side a deserved 10-0 interval lead.
Leigh Halfpenny kicked a penalty to reward Scarlets’ second-half resurgence but their momentum was temporarily interrupted when Sione Kalamafoni was led off in a dazed condition after Dmitri Arhip’s elbow caught him in the face. No action was taken but the citing officer may yet be called into action.
Evans kicked his second penalty but the secondhalf belonged to Scarlets and they looked to have scored their first try when a cross-field kick saw Angus O’Brien touch down but TMO replays showed that McNicholl had earlier impeded Morgan.
However Scarlets persisted with their tactic of cross-field kicks and it paid dividends when Blade Thomson collected one from Steff Hughes to score.
Halfpenny converted but that was it for Scarlets with Kieran Hardy’s yellow card for a deliberate knock-on not helping their cause.
Scarlets coach Glenn Delaney said: “We had enough territory and possession to score more points. We had four or five chances on their goal-line but didn’t take them.
“It’s always worrying to lose two in a row but I’d be far more aggravated if we were not creating chances. We just have to be better in taking them.”