Cardiff Blues 6 Scarlets 9
A minute’s silence was observed in memory of Robert Reed, father of Lou Reed, who passed away last weekend, before the much anticipated match kicked off.
Aled Thomas got some early points for the visitors with two well taken penalties after the Scarlets had dominated possession for a long period of play. However, Patchell got one back for the home side a little while later.
The Blues were looking to create opportunity, spreading the ball nicely, which saw Patchell picking a lovely angle, but frustratingly was just ankle tapped and penalised for holding on. There were some errors creeping into the Blues play with dropped catches from high balls and passes proving frustrating to the fans.
Thomas failed an easy penalty effort for the Scarlets and the Blues moved up field, with some powerful driving from the forwards, they came to within yards of the Scarlets try-line. The Blues eventually won a penalty and this time it was Patchell’s turn to slot it wide.
The Scarlets had a late charge at the end of the first half but some solid Blues defence kept them out, only for the referee to award a penalty that Thomas kicked over.
Half time Cardiff Blues 3 Scarlets 9
The Scarlets started the second half looking dangerous with Jonathan Davies breaking well down the left. They looked to have an overlap with George North on the right but Kieran Murphy fumbled the ball which gave the Blues time to recover.
Despite the odd flash of entertainment the game never really got going. Patchell narrowed the deficit with a straight forward penalty.
The errors continued for the Blues with kicks failing to gain ground. The Scarlets capitalised on their mistakes which saw Thomas hooking another penalty wide.
A crowd of 9,872 turned up to watch the match, beating the previous season best crowd of 9,624 against Toulon, unfortunately the match didn’t do the occasion justice. Liam Williams looked to have clinched a late try but Aled Thomas’s pass was deemed forward however the Scarlets had done enough to hold on to the win.
15 Jason Tovey 14 Alex Cuthbert 13 Gavin Evans 12 Dafydd Hewitt 11 Harry Robinson 10 Rhys Patchell 9 Lewis Jones
8 Andries Preotrius (c) 7 Sam Warburton 6 Josh Navidi (65off) 5 James Down 4 Bradley Davies 3 Scott Andrews(65off) 2 Marc Breeze (70off) 1 Taufa’ao Filise
16 Rhys Williams (70on) 17 Sam Hobbs 18 Benoit Bourrust (65on) 19 Macauley Cook 20 Robin Copeland (65on) 21 Alex Walker 22 Ceri Sweeney 23 Owen Williams
15 Liam Williams 14 George North, 13 Jonathan Davies (capt), 12 Scott Williams, 11 Andy Fenby, 10 Aled Thomas, 9 Tavis Knoyle,
1 Phil John, 2 Emyr Phillips, 3 Samson Lee, 4 George Earle, 5 Johan Snyman, 6 Josh Turnbull, 7 Aaron Shingler, 8 Kieran Murphy.
Replacements: 16 Matthew Rees, 17 Rhodri Jones, 18 Deacon Manu, 19 Sione Timani, 20 Johnathan Edwards, 21 Gareth Davies, 22 Gareth Owen, 23 Gareth Maule.
Cardiff Blues
Tries
Con
Pen Patchell x 2
D/G
Scarlets
Tries
Con
Pen Thomas x 3
D/G
Attendance 9,872