The Scarlets were narrowly edged out in the first of the festive season’s double at the Liberty Stadium but this afternoon the home side were hungry for revenge and gained it on the back of a dominant pack and skilful set of backs.
With Ospreys looking to do the double over their rivals at Parc y Scarlets on Saturday, coach Steve Tandy made one change to his starting line up with Aisea Natoga replacing hamstring-injury victim Eli Walker.
In contrast the Scarlets made a number of changes after their narrow defeat to the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium.
Centre Scott Williams returned to captain his side, with Hadleigh Parkes moving from centre to wing and Michael Tagicakibau joining Parkes and Liam Williams in the back three.
Hooker Kirby Myhill replaced the injured Emyr Phillips, Johan Snyman joined Jake Ball in the second row while scrum-half Gareth Davies returned to the bench following a long lay-off with a knee injury.
The Scarlets opened the scoring with an early Rhys Priestland penalty but were reduced to 14 men when Scott Williams was harshly given a yellow card for ‘twisting’ Ospreys hooker Baldwin’s neck in a tackle.
Dan Biggar levelled the scores with a well struck penalty. Priestland had a chance to regain the lead but he fluffed his shot but he made amends on 23mins when he nailed a sitter after the Ospreys were caught off-side after the Scarlets forwards clicked through the gears to put the visitors defence under severe pressure.
Liam Williams scored the first try of the match after Priestland went blind and exploded past opposite number Biggar and off-loaded to the flying full back who left Natoga for dead to put the Scarlets 11-3 ahead.
The young front row of Samson Lee, Kirby Myhill and Rob Evans led the charge up front and forced another penalty at a scrum which Priestland converted to give the Scarlets a handy 14-3 lead at the break.
The Scarlets burst out of the blocks from the kick-off. Scott Williams spotted a gap, eluded an ankle tap from Baldwin and put on the after-burners to sprint 70m before passing infield to Liam Williams. The full back got to within 2m of the try-line to set up a ruck and Aled Davies put John Barclay over to put the home side 19-3 ahead.
The Scarlets immediately survived a scare when some sloppy play saw Justin Tipuric sneak in ahead of the covering Preistland but the TMO ruled out the try.
The Ospreys struggled to maintain any momentum with ball in hand and even without Lee and Myhill, the Scarlets scrum continued to torment the visitors pack. The set-piece was shredded again and Priestland piled on the agony with another successful penalty to increase the lead to 22-3.
Dan Evans showed upper body strength to power through Scott Williams and Gareth Davies’ tackle to crash over and with Biggar’s conversion, the Ospreys still have a sniff of getting something out of the match.
But as the match neared its conclusion a number of substitutions stopped the momentum for the Ospreys and the home side was able to record their first victory over their arch rivals since Boxing Day, 2011.
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