Scarlets got revenge on Cardiff, Wales women finally won, and Ospreys and Dragons were defeated at home to South Africa sides.

All that, and a full round of Super Rygbi Cymru action, makes this Welsh rugby weekend round-up a busy one. So without anymore mucking about, let’s get into it!

Davies Double Downs Cardiff

Scarlets beat Cardiff to extend their love affair with the Arms Park, as Gareth Davies’ brace of tries helped his side to a fifth successive win in the capital.

Johnny Williams also crossed for the visitors, after some excellent centre inter-play between himself and Scarlets teammate Eddie James.

Scarlets flyhalf Ioan Lloyd, selected ahead of Wales teammate Sam Costelow kicked 10 points in a perfect audition for the Autumn Internationals as he steered his side to a first win of the season.

Scarlets ill-discipline almost cost them – second half yellows for Tom Rogers and Josh Macleod almost let Cardiff back into the game through Harri Millard’s double and a penalty try.

“From a character perspective, I am really pleased,” Scarlets coach Dwayne Peel said.

“Defending your line with 13 men is pretty savage and we managed that period well.

“That’s three games that have gone down to the wire for us this season. We managed to stick in there this time and it was nice to get the win.”

Dragons Lose Despite Basham Brace

Dragons fans had to experience a second successive close home defeat to a South Africa opposition, as they fell to a 19-23 loss at the hands of the Lions on Sunday afternoon.

Thanks to Taine Basham’s brace of tries, Dragons out-scored Lions, three tries to two, but could not respond to Nico Steyn’s calm kicking display.

Will Reed stepped off the bench, only to hit the post with a 69th-minute penalty, but Dragons were still able to claim a losing bonus point.

“I’m disappointed with the result but I’m probably more disappointed that the performance just didn’t look like us,” Dragons head coach Dai Flanagan said.

“We have tried to create an identity in the opening weeks but we didn’t have the same energy or tempo today.”

First-Half Blitz Leaves Ospreys Too Much To Do

Ospreys fell to a 19-29 defeat at the Swansea.com Stadium on Saturday evening, as the Bulls ran it four first half tries.

With the home side 0-26 down in 23 minutes, it looked like it would be a very long night for Ospreys, but Dewi Lake’s try before the break gave them a much needed boost.

Ryan Conbeer and Morgan Morris – playing his 100th game for Ospreys – put some respectability on the score line, but Boeta Chamberlain’s 76th minute penalty meant a loss bonus point was out of reach.

 “You look at what they put out there, and you know you are going to have to be at your best and really clinical,” Ospreys head coach Toby Booth said.

“We weren’t accurate last week against Munster, we weren’t against Dragons, we were against Stormers and that’s always the battle, there’s people on the other side trying to stop you from doing that.

“For us, if we want to become the team that we want to be we need greater accuracy, because if you’re not accurate, the very best teams will punish you and they punished us big style.

“I’m not a person to dress it up, we do need to be better. You have got to get yourself into the contest.”

Wales End WXV with much-needed Japan Win

Wales recording their first win in the WXV at the sixth attempt, beating Japan 19-10 to avoid relegation to WXV3.

Defeats to Australia and Italy had pilled the pressure on Ioan Cunningham and his side, but they responded with an excellent first half display.

Nel Metcalfe’s charge down and solo score opened the scoring before scrum half Keira Bevan crossed and converted her own try to give Wales a 12-0 lead at the interval.

Bevan’s try came from some wonderful interplay between the back row: Alex Callender tipped on for Alisha Joyce-Butchers to break the line and feed Bethan Lewis. The number eight showed excellent composure to find Bevan who streaked away from the covering Japanese defence.

Lewis thought she had scored a third for Wales before the break, but the try was ruled out due to a tackle off the ball in the build up.

Japan came out for the second half with intent, looking to exploit Wales’ recent weakness of not being able to continue good starts beyond the 40 minute mark.

With the ball metres from the line, Japan threw an interception pass to Jaz Joyce and the fullback shown off the speed with ball in hand that has made her a sevens star, burning past any covering defence to score under the posts.

Japan rallied, scoring two tries of their own, but did not have enough to put Wales under serious pressure.

 “We’re delighted to get the win. Japan are a great side who are well coached but I’m full of pride for our players at how they have stuck in there,” Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham said.

“I thought defensively we were great and we dug in to get the win.”

Ebbw Vale Defend The Shield

Ebbw Vale won their fourth match of the season and ended the weekend as Shield holders once again, thanks to a 31-16 win over RGC.

They do not top the table, however, as Cardiff RFC’s 29-38 at Swansea RFC puts them two points clear at the top.

Swansea, who remain winless, are bottom, with only three bonus points.

Above them are Aberavon who lost narrowly to Bridgend Ravens (28-29), while Carmarthen Quins won the battle of the midtable sides as they triumphed over Pontypool, 41-31.

The Thursday night fixture saw Llandovery best Newport in a thriller, meaning that there are now no unbeaten sides in Super Rygbi Cymru!

Results

Thursday

Newport 28-30 Llandovery

Friday

Wales 19-10 Japan

Saturday

Aberavon 28-29 Bridgend Ravens

Carmarthen Quins 41-31 Pontypool

Ebbw Vale 31-16 RGC

Swansea 29-38 Cardiff

Cardiff 19-25 Scarlets

Ospreys 19-29 Bulls

Sunday

Dragons 19-23 Lions

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