The sides didn’t enjoy ideal playing conditions at Parc y Scarlets as the rain set in for the duration of the game in Llanelli. The ball was clearly slick under hand as both teams stuttered as the handling errors crept in.
Ospreys outside half Luke Price opened the scoring through a penalty, before Scarlets fullback Leigh Halfpenny drilled three between the posts to open up a six-point lead. Scarlets tighthead prop Alex Jeffries added his name to the scoresheet just before the interval, having run a good support line from a half-break, which was converted by Halfpenny.
Halfpenny and Price exchanged a penalty each in the opening ten minutes of the second half, but despite wrestling away a decent share of possession from the hosts, the Ospreys couldn’t make any progress over the Scarlets’ try line. Halfpenny added another penalty to his tally in the final five minutes, securing the victory for his side.
“Disappointing from us to be fair. In the first half we didn’t get any territory. They played the wet weather game better than us. Our lineout didn’t quite go 100% today, obviously the conditions didn’t help but we have to be better than that.” – Justin Tipuric, Ospreys captain.
“I think that we didn’t build any pressure, lost the battle on the halfway line, set piece has to function, didn’t convert opportunities into points. Disappointing night all round.
“Any team wants to be consistent. We didn’t deliver on that front tonight. We’ve got work to do, we knew that but this shows we’ve got a considerable distance to go.” – Toby Booth, Ospreys head coach.
The Ospreys will regroup ahead of their next fixture against the Dragons on Sunday 16th May at Rodney Parade.
