Cardiff comeback seals bonus-point win at Scarlets

United Rugby Championship: Scarlets v Cardiff

Scarlets (15) 15

Tries: Page, Plumtree Cons: Costelow Pen: Costelow

Cardiff (12) 24

Tries: Belcher, Grady, Millard, Thomas Cons: Sheedy 2

Cardiff shook off a wretched start to clinch a frantic derby victory over Scarlets in Llanelli.

Scarlets centre Macs Page scored the quickest try in the United Rugby Championship since 2018 when he crossed seconds after the kick-off.

Taine Plumtree followed to put Scarlets 15-0 ahead after just 11 minutes.

But Liam Belcher, Mason Grady, Harri Millard and Ben Thomas hit back for Cardiff, who maintained their perfect start to the season.

The bonus-point victory, in front of Wales head coach Warren Gatland, means Cardiff join Leinster at the top of the league table.

It had looked so promising for Scarlets, with captain Josh Macleod back from a nine-month injury and led out by Gareth Davies on his 250th appearance.

Just 14 seconds into the game, they were also celebrating the opening try.

Cardiff tried to be cute with the kick-off when Callum Sheedy shaped to kick right but, at the last second, flicked the ball to Thomas who kicked left.

The idea was to find lock Teddy Williams with a miss-match, but it backfired in spectacular style as Tom Rogers gathered and his kick deflected off Cam Winnett into the hands of Page who had a clear run.

Scarlets then grabbed a second when Sam Costelow's long pass found Plumtree waiting in acres of space.

Cardiff looked shell-shocked but were forced to abandon any pragmatism and hit back with two tries in four minutes.

Thomas produced something from nothing to set up a line-out from which hooker Belcher touched down.

Moments later, Sheedy combined with Winnett for Grady to race over.

Scarlets achieved the league double against Cardiff last season and had won five of the previous six meetings.

But Cardiff took their momentum into the second half, especially when Ryan Elias was shown a yellow card for striking Ben Donnell in the head.

Keiron Assiratti turned the screw at a series of four scrums in front of the posts that ended with Alec Hepburn, on his debut, joining Elias in the sin bin.

Millard's try in the corner was almost inevitable, but Costelow missed a chance to put 13-man Scarlets back in front when he fired a straightforward penalty wide.

Belcher was the third player shown yellow card and Alex Craig was outstanding for Scarlets, but they became scrappy in their desperation.

And when Costelow missed a second penalty in the final minute, they even missed out on a losing bonus point.

Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel said: "It's frustrating not to get anything from that game.

"We started well and full of energy but then made too many unforced errors, particularly beyond the gain line.

"We showed plenty of fight, especially down to 13 men, but Cardiff did well to disrupt us at the breakdown and we just weren't accurate enough."

Cardiff head coach Matt Sherratt said: "It certainly wasn't the start we hoped for but there was no need to panic because 15 points is not that much these days.

"I knew there would be swings in momentum, we just had to make sure we took the points when available and we did that.

"Conceding that many points early on meant there was only one way to go for us from there and the pack really stood up."

Scarlets: Ioan Lloyd; Tom Rogers, Macs Page, Johnny Williams, Blair Murray; Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies; Kemsley Mathias, Ryan Elias, Henry Thomas, Alex Craig, Max Douglas, Jarrod Taylor, Josh Macleod (capt), Taine Plumtree.

Replacements: Marnus van der Merwe, Alec Hepburn, Sam Wainwright, Jac Price, Dan Davis, Efan Jones, Eddie James, Ellis Mee.

Sin bins: Elias (51), Hepburn (55)

Cardiff: Cam Winnett; Mason Grady, Rey Lee-Lo, Ben Thomas, Iwan Stephens; Callum Sheedy, Aled Davies; Corey Domachowski, Liam Belcher (capt), Keiron Assiratti, Josh McNally, Teddy Williams, Ben Donnell, Dan Thomas, Alun Lawrence.

Replacements: Evan Lloyd, Ed Byrne, Rhys Litterick, Rory Thornton, Mackenzie Martin, Ellis Bevan, Tinus de Beer, Harri Millard.

Sin bin: Belcher (60)

Referee: Christopher Allison (SARU)

Assistant referees: Mike English, Amber Stamp-Dunstan (WRU)

TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU).