Cathal Forde's late penalty sees Connacht edge out Scarlets

Cathal Forde's penalty three minutes from time broke Scarlets' hearts as Connacht snatched a 24-23 win to record their fourth successive victory over the Welsh region.

Connacht shaded the battle after outscoring their hosts three tries to two at Parc y Scarlet, with Piers O'Conor, Mack Hansen and Ben Murphy crossing for the visitors.

Jack Carty converted all three before Forde slotted over the match-winning penalty to help Connacht claim a second win of the new United Rugby Championship season.

Gareth Davies scored two tries for Scarlets with Sam Costelow converting both and kicking two penalties. Ioan Lloyd also added a penalty for the hosts but it was not enough to prevent winless Scarlets from suffering a second loss.

A mistake from Scarlets full-back Ioan Nicholas gifted the Irish outfit an early lead. A cross-field kick from Carty put Nicholas under pressure and his stray pass found no-one, with O'Conor taking advantage to touch down.

Worse was to follow for the hosts when Tom Rogers was sent to the sin bin for preventing a quick throw-in before Connacht appeared to have extended their lead when Dave Heffernan finished off a driving line-out, although the try was ruled out for an earlier obstruction.

However, Connacht were still able to take advantage of Rogers' absence when another cross-field from Carty provided Hansen with the simple task of collecting to score.

Scarlets received a boost when Bundee Aki was yellow-carded for a high shot on Costelow and they capitalised when Blair Murray and Dan Davis made crucial contributions to set up a try for Davies.

Aki was still in the bin when skilful handling from Johnny Williams sent Eddie James away and he in turn put Davies in under the posts for his second try of the night.

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