Unfortunate screenshot captures the exact moment Josh Navidi dislocated his elbow
Cardiff Blues overcame the early loss of Wales flanker Josh Navidi to destroy Scarlets 41-17 at the Arms Park.
Navidi departed in the second minute with what appeared to be a serious elbow injury but it did not stop a rampant Cardiff, who ran in five first-half tries.
It appears that the backrow has dislocated his elbow.
Reports coming out of Cardiff, however, suggested that the elbow was relocated by medics almost immediately, suggesting a recovery time of roughly a month.
A picture has emerged of the moment the Wales flanker did the damage to his elbow.
Aled Summerhill and Owen Lane each scored two, Josh Turnbull the other, with Gareth Anscombe converting all five and adding two penalties.
Rob Evans scored two tries for Scarlets with Ioan Nicholas also crossing. Leigh Halfpenny converted one.
The bonus-point win strengthened Blues' hopes of a Pro 14 play-off spot and the victory allowed them to complete a handsome double over their opponents, having won 34-5 at Parc y Scarlets back in December.
After Navidi's departure, Halfpenny had the first chance for points but his 40-metre penalty attempt rebounded back off a post.
The visitors were soon made to pay with Anscombe putting Blues in front with a penalty before a well-judged kick from Jarrod Evans secured a platform in the opposition 22. From there a burst from Shane Lewis-Hughes put the defence on the back foot to set up the first try for Lane.
Anscombe converted before Cardiff produced a thrilling move, which culminated in Summerhill running 30 metres to score Blues' second try in three minutes.
A dreadful first half for Scarlets continued when they conceded a third try. Lane created it by bursting between attempted tackles from James Davies and Nicholas before producing a neat off-load for Turnbull to cross.
In the 33rd minute, Blues picked up their bonus point when Willis Halaholo brushed aside Rhys Patchell's tackle to give Summerhill an unopposed run to the line for his second. A clever kick from Jarrod Evans then resulted in Lane winning the race for the touchdown and Anscombe's fifth successful conversion of the half gave his side a 38-0 interval lead.
Scarlets made substantial changes at half-time with Wales internationals Rob Evans, Gareth Davies and Ken Owens all introduced together with Dan Jones, who replaced former Blue Patchell at fly-half.
The substitutions paid dividends as the visitors controlled the first 10 minutes of the second half. Nicholas was denied a try as the TMO ruled that the wing had lost control as he dived for the line but eventually the pressure was rewarded when Rob Evans forced his way over.
Scarlets were now a completely different proposition as they continued to dominate, aided by the sin-binning of Blues' prop Dillon Lewis for a scrum offence.
Rob Evans crashed over for his second but Scarlets' miserable night continued when he left with an arm injury before Anscombe's late penalty took Blues past 40, with a late try from Nicholas a mere consolation.
RugbyPass/PA
Latest Comments
Look there are a few unarguable facts here that are very clear. SARU was close to bankruptcy with SR, bailed out by the Lions and they need the URC and EPCR. Inclusion of SA teams in URC has been a great for for ALL concerned, from a rugby perspective and financially, moreover there is massive growth yet to come. The GP is in financial trouble and this will be the catalyst for EPCR change to further cement the Boks.
If this all plays out with even greater rewards for the urc AND the Top14 & GP via EPCR, the 6N will become 7N. Nz and Aus NEED to get their version firing with Japan & the PI’s, otherwise they will find themselves increasingly regressing…
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
Go to comments