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Dai Young makes winning start as Cardiff Blues triumph at Scarlets
By PA
Cardiff Blues interim director of rugby Dai Young celebrated his return to the region after a 10-year absence with a 13-10 win over the Scarlets in Llanelli.
The result completed a quickfire double over their host, having beaten them 29-20 at the Cardiff City Stadium only a fortnight ago.
However, Young missed a lot of the action as a serious road traffic accident on the M4 delayed his arrival until midway through the first half.
Matthew Morgan scored the Blues’ try, with Jarrod Evans adding a conversion and two penalties.
Blade Thomson responded with a try for Scarlets, while Leigh Halfpenny kicked a penalty and a conversion.
Scarlets dominated early possession and territory, but a malfunctioning line-out prevented them from capitalising and they were made to pay when the Blues scored the first try after 14 minutes.
The visitors built up a period of pressure but did not appear threatening until a delightful off-load from Evans gave Morgan the chance to race away and score a try on his 100th appearance for the region.
Two minutes later the Blues suffered a blow when their captain, Cory Hill, left the field with a leg injury to be replaced by Rory Thornton.
However, with the Scarlets continually making handling errors and conceding penalties, the visitors were able to overcome the setback of losing Hill by extending their lead through a simple penalty from Evans to give his side a deserved 10-0 interval lead.
A high tackle from Evans on Scarlets centre Johnny Williams gave the home side the chance to dominate the opening period of the second half and they were rewarded when Halfpenny kicked a penalty to put them on the scoreboard.
Scarlets then introduced Ken Owens for his first game since injuring his shoulder at Glasgow back in October, but this was off-set with the loss of powerful number eight Sione Kalamafoni, who was led off in a dazed state after a heavy collision.
The Blues also made substitutions, with long-term absentee Josh Navidi coming on at number eight, while Wales props Rhys Carre and Dillon Lewis also took the field in time to see Evans kick his second penalty.
The home side looked to have scored their first try when a cross-field kick from Dan Jones resulted in replacement Angus O’Brien seizing on the loose ball to touch down, but TMO replays showed that Johnny McNicholl had impeded Morgan.
However, Scarlets persisted with their cross-field kicks and it paid dividends when Thomson latched on to one from Steff Hughes to collect and score.
Halfpenny converted but that was as close as the Scarlets got, with a late yellow card for scrum-half Kieran Hardy not helping their cause.
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Go to commentsI’d take the Sharks, Stormers, Bulls, and Lions back in a second. Super Rugby Pacific is improving and the conference system sucked ass and never should have been implemented but if you think the quality of rugby is better without the South African franchises, you are kidding yourself.
And there is nothing authentic about Moana Pacifika, it is a sixth NZ franchise. Almost all of the players are NZ citizens, born and raised in NZ, were developed by NZ secondary schools and play in the NPC. The players just happen to be of Pacific heritage (just as there are a very large number of Pacific heritage players on the original five NZ franchises). Moana Pacifika is a marketing ploy for Auckland’s second SRP franchise.
Fiji Drua are legitimately a Pacific island team. Most players are born in Fiji, the players live and train in Fiji, and they play their home matches in Fiji.
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