Wales full back Blair Murray grabbed a vital bonus-point try to complete a Scarlets comeback against Dragons at Judgement Day and enable his side to climb two places in the BKT United Rugby Championship.
Murray latched onto a speculative chip into the Dragons 22 by scrum half Gareth Davies to run in his side’s fourth try to give his side the lead after they had once trailed by 20-7 in the early stages of the second half. They eventually won 31-23.
Ioan Lloyd added the conversion and then put the final nail in the Dragons coffin with a penalty in the last minute of the match. It was a scoreline that gave the Scarlets a fighting chance of reaching the top eight with three games to play.
They have to host table-topping Leinster at Parc y Scalets in the next round before ending with two games in South Africa. This win moved them up to ninth, two points behind the Stormers and Munster in the final two play-off places.
In a game that swung wildly one way and then the other Angus O’Brien twice kicked Dragons ahead as Jared Rosser ended his try-drought with two scores before Ashton Hewitt got his first of the season.
It wasn’t until Murray followed Va’ea Fifita’s try that the Scarlets looked to have finally taken control. Earlier in the game international props Henry Thomas and Alec Hepburn both scored their first tries for the region.
Lloyd converted all four tries as well as landing his last-gasp penalty, which even took the losing bonus-point away from the battling Dragons. Yellow cards to front row men Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths and Wales hooker Eliot Dee didn’t help the Dragons cause.
The 28,328 fans who attended the 10th edition of Judgement Day were treated to excitement from start to finish, with Cardiff Rugby running in six tries in their 39-19 win over the Ospreys to move up to sixth in the table in the opening match.
Scarlets dominated the opening 20 minutes but only had Thomas’ try to show for it after missing a host of chances and Sam Lousi’s try being ruled out. The Dragons rallied through their international forward trio of Aaron Wainwright, Taine Basham and Ben Carter and scored 20 unanswered points.
O’Brien beat four defenders with a sizzling pass to send Rosser racing over for his first try in 364 days, before he kicked Dragons into an 8-7 interval lead. Two more tries in the space of four minutes early in the second half seemingly put the Dragons on course for only their second league win of the season and their first league victory away from Rodney Parade since the same fixture two years ago.
Ewan Rosser handed Ashton Hewitt an easy finish for the first of the second half brace and then O’Brien’s kick set up a lineout from which Jared Rosser got his second from a metre out.
It was panic stations for the Scarlets with their season on the line and they responded decisively as they finally built up a head of steam. Hepburn spun out of a ruck on the line to touchdown and then Fifita made the most of a searing break from Wales wing Tom Rogers.
As the pressure mounted both Joe Roberts and Taine Plumtree went close to putting the Scarlets in front before Murray raced in for his try.