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Keiran Williams brace helps Ospreys claim derby spoils against struggling Scarlets
By PA
Ospreys centre Keiran Williams scored two tries to help earn his side a 31-9 victory and condemn Scarlets to another derby defeat in Swansea.
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Scarlets have not won at their Welsh rivals since October 2017 and they never looked likely to break that losing run as Ospreys’ pack was the dominant force in a static game.
The hosts scored four tries to nil with Morgan Morris and Dan Edwards also on the tryscoring sheet. Jack Walsh kicked three conversions and a penalty with Edwards adding a conversion.
Three penalties from Ioan Lloyd was Scarlets’ response, although it was the visitors who drew first blood at the Swansea.com Stadium.
Ospreys were penalised at the first scrum, which enabled Lloyd to give his side a fourth-minute lead.
However, Scarlets immediately bungled the restart and the hosts made them pay when Williams joined a line-out drive to force his way over.
Walsh converted before Lloyd kicked his second penalty to leave Scarlets trailing 7-6 at the end of an evenly-contested first quarter.
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Ospreys then turned down a couple of kickable penalties in favour of more attacking options and were rewarded when Williams crashed over for his second try.
A thumping tackle from Vaea Fifita on Max Nagy won Scarlets a penalty and once again Lloyd was on target but that score was quickly nullified with a first penalty success for Walsh.
Ospreys led 17-9 at the interval and, 10 minutes after the restart, they extended that advantage when Morris finished off a succession of forward drives for the home side’s third try.
Scarlets replaced internationals Gareth Davies and Wyn Jones in an attempt to reverse their fortunes but it proved fruitless in a disappointing afternoon that left them joint bottom of the United Rugby Championship table.
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Their replacement prop Steff Thomas was sin-binned in the 67th minute for repeated team offences and Ospreys took advantage to score their bonus-point try when creative play from Nagy gave debutant Edwards a run-in.
Latest Comments
The weather was dreadful but the playing surface was great so there is no real excuse for such another poor standard of play from both sides. Dragons just the better team. But, what a shocking decision by the TMO not to award the Fifita try. This pretty much sums up Welsh rugby with poor teams and poor officials. The WRU have a lot of work to do and it needs to be done quickly to avoid rugby being lost to our future generations.
Go to commentsNo chance of Borthwick selecting any young talent. He announced his selection policy from the outset with naming a poor OF as Captain, retaining an equally poor Youngs and Vunipola brothers when there were many better EQP in the Premiership. SB revival of Leicester was based on SA muscle and a terrific Welsh flanker he has generally ignored young English talent.
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