United Rugby Championship: Ospreys 31-9 Scarlets - Hosts overpower local rivals

Keiran Williams, who was playing against Wales rival Johnny Williams, celebrates the opening try

Ospreys rose to ninth in the United Rugby Championship table as they celebrated a bonus-point win over rivals Scarlets in Swansea.

Centre Keiran Williams scored two tries while Morgan Morris and Dan Edwards also dotted down and Jack Walsh kicked nine points.

Scarlets responded with three penalties from Ioan Lloyd.

It was a fifth defeat in six matches for Dwayne Peel's side who slipped to the bottom of the URC table.

Dragons are one place above Scarlets in 15th position as two Welsh sides prop up the standings.

In wet conditions in Swansea, Wales captain Jac Morgan was outstanding on his first start for Ospreys since January, while two-try Williams was named player of the match as he impressed with an all-action display.

Scarlets flanker Vaea Fifita was the standout performer for the woeful visitors, who have not won at the Swansea.com Stadium since October 2017.

Peel's men have now conceded 200 points in four away games this season against Ospreys, Leinster, Bulls and Stormers.

The match was played in front of a crowd of 8,090, the lowest attendance figure for this match in Swansea since the Ospreys moved to this stadium.

There was a crowd of 8,489 in 2019 for a European play-off game in May 2019 and 10,141 for a regular league game in April 2022.

The mitigating factors of the match held on a Sunday afternoon and on a miserable drizzly day should be taken into consideration and Ospreys were proactive in trying to sell this game, especially on social media.

Ospreys' bosses and the squad will be hoping this sort of dominant display and more upbeat occasion will attract people to watch them at home during the rest of the season.

Missing men

Ospreys said centre George North was missing through illness after a knee infection in a week in which he seemed to move closer to joining French side Provence.

North, who was seen on television at the game, was one of 16 unavailable players including internationals Justin Tipuric, Alex Cuthbert and Owen Williams.

The home side welcomed back Morgan to replace Ospreys injured captain Tipuric with number eight Morgan Morris leading the hosts.

Scarlets made seven changes from the team that lost by 50 points to Leinster with Ioan Lloyd, Gareth Davies, Ryan Elias, Fifita, Johnny McNicholl, Joe Roberts and Steff Evans returning.

Peel's side were themselves missing Kemsley Mathias, Taine Plumtree, Josh Macleod, Dan Davis, Sam Lousi, Ken Owens, Samson Lee, Dan Jones and Sam Costelow.

Welsh referee Mike English took charge of his first URC fixture and there was a moment's silence before the match to honour the late father of Wales prop Sam Wainwright with Scarlets players wearing black armbands.

Scarlets opened the scoring when Ospreys conceded an early scrum penalty with Lloyd slotting his kick.

Visiting number eight Carwyn Tuipulotu impressed against Leinster last weekend, but spilled the restart to almost allow Ospreys wing Daniel Kasende to capitalise on his first start under since region's agreement with his South African side Cheetahs.

That chance went begging, but it set up an attacking platform for centre Williams to be driven over from an effective rolling maul with Walsh converting.

Lloyd reduced the deficit with a second penalty before a storming burst from Wales flanker Morgan forced his opposite number Teddy Leatherbarrow to give away a professional foul five metres from his line that could have brought a yellow card.

From the resulting scrum, centre Williams powered over for his second try with the Scarlets defence yielding too easily on this occasion.

Fifita was proving his worth for Scarlets by stealing a line-out and producing a perfectly-timed hit on Ospreys full-back Max Nagy to give Lloyd the chance to slot over his third successful kick.

Leatherbarrow was adjudged to have given away another ruck penalty with Walsh slotting over to establish a 17-9 half-time lead.

Ioan Lloyd joined Scarlets from Bristol for the start of the 2023-24 season

Magic Morgan

Morgan continued to play a key influence after the interval with another turnover as Ospreys dominated the third quarter and the pressure told as captain Morris was driven over.

Ospreys were able to bring on Wales front-row duo Gareth Thomas and Sam Parry while Scarlets introduced former Wales Under-20s international prop Joe Jones for his debut after signing from Sale Sharks.

An excellent 50:22 kick from centre Roberts set up an encouraging platform for Scarlets, who forced a couple of scrum penalties but ultimately spurned their attacking chances.

Ospreys reasserted their dominance and replacement prop Steff Thomas was shown a yellow card for the visitors' persistent offending.

The home side took advantage of their extra man with Nagy counter-attacking and releasing replacement fly-half Edwards to sprint over unopposed on his league debut. His conversion completed the scoring.

Ospreys head coach Toby Booth: "You know how hard these things are are and we are delighted with the outcome, especially on the back of a Welsh derby defeat against Dragons the week before.

"Everyone knows the west Wales derby is important and we got up for it tonight.

"If we can create that atmosphere in every game, those things are important to us and the boys responds to them.

"You have days when you win and play well. You're in the entertainment business and people want to come back and that's our responsibility."

Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel: "I am bitterly disappointed. I thought we were second best in every facet.

"It was a game that produces a lot of emotion but I didn't think we were accurate enough in the fundamentals.

"We are better than what we showed at times today and in big games like this we need to be more accurate."

Ospreys: Max Nagy; Daniel Kasende, Owen Watkin, Keiran Williams, Luke Morgan; Jack Walsh, Reuben Morgan-Williams; Nicky Smith, Dewi Lake, Tom Botha, James Fender, Adam Beard, Rhys Davies, Jac Morgan, Morgan Morris (capt).

Replacements: Sam Parry, Gareth Thomas, Rhys Henry, Harri Deaves, Tristan Davies, Rewan Kruger, Dan Edwards, Luke Scully.

Scarlets: Johnny McNicholl; Tom Rogers, Joe Roberts, Johnny Williams, Steff Evans; Ioan Lloyd, Gareth Davies (capt); Wyn Jones, Ryan Elias, Harri O'Connor, Alex Craig, Jac Price, Vaea Fifita, Teddy Leatherbarrow, Carwyn Tuipulotu.

Replacements: Shaun Evans, Steff Thomas, Joe Jones, Morgan Jones, Ben Williams, Kieran Hardy, Charlie Titcombe, Ioan Nicholas.

Referee: Mike English (WRU)

Assistant referees: Adam Jones &: Rhys Jones (WRU)

TMO: Ian Davies (WRU)

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