Ospreys easily see off Scarlets

Neath Ospreys 28 Llanelli Scarlets 7

The Wales wing popped up in the fly-half position to dance inside Gareth Bowen and then waltz away from Garan Evans as he crossed near the posts.

The touchdown was one of two from Williams, who also set up a first-half score for Barry Williams with a weaving run from broken play.

James Bater claimed the other Ospreys’ try, while Jonathan Mills replied for the Scarlets.

With the home side missing five kicks, the beating for the Scarlets could have been even heavier.

The visitors were destroyed in the forwards and especially in the front five, where Duncan Jones and Barry Williams were immense for the league leaders, who claimed a bonus point.

The Scarlets had gone into the game on the back of a four-game winning run, but they offered little in attack once the Ospreys had settled.

The Ospreys were indebted to Shane Williams for their narrow interval lead.

The little maestro helped set up a try out of nothing when he gathered a loose ball near halfway and beat four defenders with a dancing break.

Brent Cockbain, Andrew Millward, Duncan Jones and Jonathan Thomas then provided support for their fellow front-five forward Barry Williams to dive over at the flag.

That gave the Ospreys a 11-7 lead which they carried through to the interval.

The early exchanges were tight and tense, with a high error count as the two sides battled for control in the west Wales derby.

Home prop Andrew Millward was sin-binned in the 16th minute after a high shot on Scarlets flanker Jonathan Mills.

Gavin Henson broke the deadlock on 27 minutes with a penalty and doubled the Ospreys’ lead soon after when the Scarlets transgressed again.

But it was from a Henson mistake that the Scarlets claimed a try against the run of play in the 36th minute.

The Ospreys centre dropped the ball behind his own line, giving the visitors the attacking platform from where Mills stole away on the blindside of a ruck to score.

The second half was one-way traffic, with Williams crossing for his double and Bater forcing his way over.