Scarlets fall to Ospreys

Scarlets 19 Ospreys 28

The Ospreys recovered from their Heineken Cup mauling at the hands of Munster to record a morale-boosting three tries to one Magners League victory over their west Wales rivals.

In front of their new director of coaching Scott Johnson the Ospreys came back from 19-11 down after an hour to score 17 unanswered points, including tries for Shane Williams and Lee Byrne, to keep their Magners title hopes intact.

The Ospreys were helped that they could unload a replacements bench including five internationals, which in the end was the difference between the sides.

The Scarlets’ cause was not helped that they were forced into some late changes, most significantly, captain for the day Stephen Jones, who was a late withdrawal because of a hamstring injury. Mark Jones took over as skipper, while Rhys Priestland moved up to outside-half.

After the opening minutes turned into something of a cagey arm wrestle, the Ospreys opened the scoring with a Dan Biggar penalty on 19 minutes after Vernon Cooper had encroached offside at a ruck.

But within two minutes the Scarlets were back level through a long-range Priestland effort when Cai Griffiths failed to move away after a tackle. Priestland made it 6-3 with another accurate penalty kick five minutes later after the Ospreys had erred offside

The first try looked on when Williams sent Sonny Parker on a run up the right but he could not get his pass away to Tommy Bowe outside him.

More Ospreys pressure should have helped them to level the scores at 6-6 but Dan Biggar missed a penalty from right in front of the posts.

Priestland was also wayward with a much more difficult penalty kick before he planted two more in second-half injury time to give the Scarlets a 12-3 interval lead.

The Ospreys were obviously not happy with inexperienced referee John Lacey. Skipper Ryan Jones remonstrated with the Irish official as the players went off at half-time.

Jones’s frustrations eased after the break as he scored the opening try of the game on 45 minutes, going in at the left corner from a Shane Williams pass after the Ospreys stepped up the pressure.

Ospreys hopes of further eating away at the Scarlets’ lead were dashed when James Hook, who replaced the injured Sonny Parker at half-time, was well wide with a penalty goal shot.

But Biggar made up for the miss with a penalty on 51 minutes to cut the home side’s lead to a point, just a couple of minutes after Lee Byrne entered the fray for his first rugby since the Six Nations Championship.

The Ospreys’ comeback, however, was stopped in its tracks by a try from centre Jon Davies, a score that was made by Dan Evans, who caught his own up and under and jinked his way to a metre from the line.

The visitors did not help their own cause as they kept missing kicks. Biggar and Hook were both off target meaning they had missed four penalties and a conversion.

Hook’s miss came after Scarlets prop Deacon Manu was sin-binned for an off-the-ball shoulder charge.

And down to 14 men, the Ospreys turned the screw to score two converted tries and a penalty to go into the lead. First Mike Phillips put in Shane Williams down the left before Hook broke through midfield and sent Byrne across the line.

Hook’s penalty on 71 minutes gave the Ospreys a nine-point advantage.

The Scarlets were not helped that Priestland missed an injury time penalty from the 22.