Whilst the Scarlets travelled from West Wales to the capital, it was a case going next door for the Blues in the first of the Judgement Day games. The Scarlets were bolstered by the return of John Barclay, Samson Lee, Phil John and RaboDirect Pro12 top try scorer Gareth Davies. The Blues on the other hand continued to be hampered by injuries, with Rhys Patchell, Leigh Halfpenny and Sam Warburton still out.
With the Scarlets still in the qualification places for Europe next year they had far more to play for than the Blues. However, it was still a Welsh derby and the Blues were trying to continue their mini-revival under Dale McIntosh and Paul John. Recent results have seen them defeat Ulster and Edinburgh and they wanted to continue that at the national ground.
With the roof shut, following a downpour just before kick-off, the conditions were perfect for running rugby. These conditions seemed to favour the Scarlets but it was the Blues who came out and played all the rugby. Alex Cuthbert burrowed over after just four minutes when a Cory Allen dummy opened up the Scarlet defence. Gareth Davies pushed the conversion just wide.
It went from bad to worse for the Scarlets as Liam Williams was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Alex Cuthbert, similar to the ‘Jarad Payne-incident’ in the Heineken Cup. Williams' challenge looked worse than the Jarad Payne tackle but only resulted in a yellow. Jordan Williams slotted in at fullback as a ready-made replacement.
It was an error strewn half from the Scarlets, as they struggled to get out of their own 22 for large parts of it. They gift wrapped points for Gareth Davies as he kicked two more easy penalties. The West Walians lacked cohesion and even British and Irish Lion Jon Davies, was not without error.
However, they were thrown a lifeline on 32 minutes when Rhys Priestland raced over for a try, which looked questionable. George Earle charged down an attempted Dan Fish kick, only for it to bounce to Jake Ball, who looked to be standing in an offside position, he offloaded to Priestland who finished. The try stood and gave the Scarlets a way back into the match. However, from in front of the posts, Rhys Priestland missed the resulting conversion, which capped a poor afternoon for the Welsh outside-half.
It wasn’t long before Gareth Davies hit back with another pen. Scarlets could not get into the game and the first potent attack came when Jordan Williams gave a taste of his potential. The young wing skipped past Macauley Cook and attempted a spectacular offload; which failed to spark more attacks from the 'away' side'.
Preistland added one more penalty to make in 14-8 at half-time. On 55 minutes both Liam Williams and Robin Copeland were sent off for fighting, making the last twenty minutes very open. The Scarlets had started the half brightly but the pendulum swung back the Blues' way after the two sending offs and Cory Allen, began to pull the strings. The centre was named man of the match and has to have forced his way onto the plane to South Africa, overshadowing his opposite number Jon Davies.
On the hour mark Rhys Priestland was dragged off after a poor afternoon. On his form Gatland needs to seriously consider who will wear the number 10 jersey for Wales this summer.
In Priestland's absence, Ken Owens dived over from the back of a maul to score the Scarlets second try, the conversion would have seen them take the lead but Steven Shingler could not oblige.
Gareth Davies added one more penalty to make it 17-13 and seal the game. Scarlets ran the Blues close in the closing moments but in all honesty deserved nothing from the game, they were well below par.
Scarlets are still yet to win a Welsh derby this season, with two more to come before the end of this season. The Blues have their third win in a row and have moved up to seventh in the Pro12. As well as the Blues played, the Scarlets will need to up their game to close out the campaign.
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