Scarlets 10-16 Cardiff Rugby: Blue and Blacks put turbulent week behind them to win turgid Welsh derby

Cardiff put a turbulent week behind them to win a turgid Welsh derby against the Scarlets, leaving Llanelli as 16-10 winners on Saturday night.

The visitors took the lead inside the first 10 minutes when their first real foray into the Scarlets’ half resulted in Steff Thomas being pinged for not rolling away and Jarrod Evans clipped over the first points from the tee.

But the game then meandered through the first 25 minutes with very little incident. Both teams, who had one win in six between them prior to the match, looked desperately low on confidence.

Scarlets kicked a lot of ball away, lacking the dynamism in attack required to cause the visitors any sort of problems. Much of the kicking was inaccurate but enough to win the territory battle.

Cardiff lived off scraps but looked the more dangerous and polished when they had the ball, though opportunities were all too infrequent.

A hushed din set in over Parc y Scarlets, which suggested the crowd were far from invested in what was happening out on the pitch. But in fairness, there was little to get excited about.

Leigh Halfpenny levelled the scores with a testing penalty in the 22nd minute but then Cardiff made wine out of water. Tomos Williams gathered a loose ball, probed a little before sending one of the big men into contact. Next, Rhys Carre made a linebreak after some weak Scarlets defence and popped to Williams for an easy run-in. Simple as you like and Evans converted.

The hosts thought they’d hit back straight away but Costelow’s final pass to Corey Baldwin was forward and a try was wiped out. There would be no more score before the break and Cardiff produced the better of two poor performances to lead 10-3.

Two quick Jarrod Evans penalties in the second half