Misery for Cardiff as Scarlets triumph

By ROGER PANTING

Cardiff ……………..22pts

Tries: Faletau 35, Carre 48, Adams 63

Conversions: Evans 35, 48

Penalties: Evans 2

Scarlets …………..28pts

Tries: Blacker 3, McNicholl 26, J.Davies28

Conversions: Halfpenny 3, 28

Penalties: Halfpenny 44, 52, 71

Cardiff's miserable start to the New Year continued as they fell to a second home defeat in six days to put a huge dent in their hopes of securing an end of season play-off spot.

Last Monday, Ospreys triumphed 22-19 at the Arms Park with Jarrod Evans missing a late penalty but of more concern to Cardiff will be that injuries continue to accumulate.

Liam Williams, Ray Lee-Lo and Thomas Young all left the field with injuries which obviously didn't help Cardiff 's cause but they were still their own worst enemies by making a number of unforced errors.

Cardiff head coach Dai Young said: “Both physically and mentally we weren't at our best and Scarlets deserved to win.

“We were very careless with the ball and didn't have our usual bite in defence.”

Full-blown trial matches ahead of internationals are a thing of the past but this came nearest to it with Welsh head coach, Warren Gatland, due to announce his Six Nations squad in the next few days. Obviously Gatland has his favourites, two of his old faithfuls, Leigh Halfpenny and Jonathan Davies impressed, but he will also have noted the tinued when they lost Williams and Lee-Lo in quick succession to failed head injury assessments.

Almost immediately the home side fell further behind when more skilful passing sent McNicholl racing away down the right flank. The wing kicked ahead and when the ball bounced favour- substantial contributions of Joe Roberts and Dan Davis.

Fellow Scarlets Johnny McNicholl and Rhys Patchell also put their cases forward and, in the opposite camp, Rhys Carre furthered his cause with a strong scrummaging performance to complement a lively display in the loose.

A penalty from Evans gave Cardiff the lead but Scarlets responded with the opening try.

Cardiff lost possession at the restart to concede a penalty, which an alert Dane Blacker took quickly to flash over the line.

The hosts then suffered a blow when Lopeti Timani was yellow-carded for a high tackle and the visitors were able to capitalise with some excellent ball-retention creating the space for McNicholl to score.

Cardiff 's troubles conably Jonathan Davies was on hand to touchdown.

Timani returned to see his side reduce the arrears when Taulupe Faletau forced his way over from a 5m scrum with a conversion from Evans leaving Cardiff trailing 19-10 at the interval.

After the restart, Halfpenny kicked a penalty but his side suffered a setback when Steff Thomas was yellow-carded for a high shot on Thomas Young.

Cardiff took advantage with Carre driving over from close-range but Halfpenny succeeded with a second to leave the hosts chasing the game.

Their injury woes continued when Young hobbled off but they still remained in contention when Josh Adams collected an excellent cross-field kick from Ben Thomas to score.

Take that: Johnny McNicholl scores for Scarlets

However, despite a late yellow card for Aaron Shingler, Halfpenny had the final say with another penalty to see Scarlets to only their third league win of the season in 12 outings.

Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel said: “Consistency in selection has helped us in recent weeks. We knew the physical exchanges would be huge and I thought we created problems with the ball in hand.”