Scarlets emerge as only Welsh winning team in URC Round 13: Welsh Rugby Weekend Round-up
There was excitement around the regions before the weekend matches began following the return of Wales captain Jac Morgan back to the Ospreys from injury and Cardiff welcomed back number eight Taulupe Faletau.
Despite this boost, it was a tough outing for both teams as 5th place Cardiff suffered their biggest defeat this season as they travelled to Pretoria to take on 7th place Vodacom Bulls.
Cardiff made an ideal start at high-altitude against the hosts, as they scored the first try of the day through Harri Millard, then converted by Callum Sheedy.
But it was all Bulls from there on out as they scored 40 unanswered points, taking advantage of Cardiff’s unforced errors, discipline, and putting fine sequences together to keep themselves in the playoff mix.
The Scarlets were the only side of the Welsh regions to be playing at home and made sure they capitalised on that as they hosted bottom of the table Zebre on Friday while only being placed 15th themselves.
Much like the Cardiff game, Scarlets opened the scoring early, but instead managed to sustain their attacks with a 24-0 drumming in the first half.
Zebre didn’t have an answer as Jarrod Taylor, Sam Louis, Macs Page, and Ellis Mee on his return all scored in the first 40 minutes.
The Scarlets ended up putting six tries past the struggling Zebre side but conceded a couple of consolations later on as the 36-17 final score seemed more flattering for the visitors.
Nigel Davies, Scarlets interim director of rugby, said: “The first half was very pleasing. We planned not to give them any ins, our set piece was excellent, our scrum and line-out gave us a good platform to play off and we managed the game very well.”
Saturday saw the Ospreys travel to Italy to face Benetton. Off the back of a five-game unbeaten run, and now with the addition of captain Jac Morgan returning from injury, there was hope of ascending to the top eight in the home stretch of the season.
Things did not go to plan for Mark Jones’ men though, as another early try saw the Ospreys on the back foot from the start.
Despite moments of strong defence and Kieran Williams getting over the line twice, Benetton scored three unanswered tries in the second half to put the game out of sight for the visitors.
Yesterday, the Dragons were narrowly beaten in their away trip to Cape Town to take on the DHL Stormers, who just managed to keep their noses in front in a busy second half.
The 29-21 victory instilled the Stormers title hopes as they come close to league leaders Glasgow, but their work was cut out for them by the game Dragons who kept firing back.
The Dragons were in touching distance heading into the half time break, thanks to lock Seb Davies getting his team on the scoresheet in response to a brace from Stormers fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
Another 15 points in the second half from the Stormers was enough to keep the Dragons off their back despite the late efforts of the visitors.
There was concern for Harry Beddall who was knocked unconscious from the knee of Evan Roos in a phase of play. Beddall showed healthy signs afterwards as the Dragons reported he was responding well after being taken off.
This loss puts the Dragons underneath the Scarlets in the table following their win over Zebre.
Dragons coach Filo Tiatia said: “We didn’t start well and the Stormers did a good job around the aerial game and we just couldn’t get the ball. We didn’t scrap enough around it.
“We gave two penalties early for side entry and we are not learning quickly enough and adapting fast enough. We have got to be more agile around the law, but when we got it right, we built pressure and showed we could score tries.
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