This post was originally published on this site.
Jac Morgan was the hero in his final home match for the Ospreys, scoring a late winning try against the Scarlets in a 27-20 victory in Bridgend.
The win sealed the Welsh Shield for Mark Jones’ side, but that felt secondary to Morgan’s fitting end to his time at the Ospreys.
Beyond the Wales captain’s late score, Wales fly-half Dan Edwards contributed 22 points – including two first-half scores.
Before kick-off, there was a sense that this west Wales derby was a little low-key. Certainly at times during the match, it did have the feeling of an end-of-term affair.
However, if there’s nothing else, Welsh derbies offer bragging rights. And, with the lesser-spotted Welsh Shield on offer, as well as Steve Tandy’s Wales squad, there was still enough to play for even if both side’s URC play-off hopes were long gone.
It was the Ospreys who started better.
The scrum functioned better than the lineout, but it was some lovely work by their half-backs that opened the scoring.
Kieran Hardy spotted a gap, with Edwards quickest in support to take the pass off the ground and race around Blair Murray for the opening score.
Max Douglas soon hit back after some Scarlets pressure.
But the penalty count would soon tilt the way of the Ospreys. Their scrum got on top, with the Scarlets going down to 14 men after Joe Roberts was sin-binned for a tip tackle.
More attacking pressure allowed Edwards to sneak over for his second, with the Ospreys’ scrum getting Wales prop Kemsley Mathias sent to the bin just before half-time.
Despite being down to 13, the Scarlets started the second-half better.
Joe Hawkins knocked over a long-range penalty, before it quickly become 14 v 14.
Roberts returned, before his lengthy break resulted in Ryan Smith trudging to the sin-bin.
While it was 14 against 14, the Scarlets reduced the deficit as Taine Plumtree reached over.
Then, when both sides were back to full compliments, the Scarlets moved ahead after quick hands from Macs Page put Wales full-back Blair Murray over.
Sam Parry had a try chalked off when the Ospreys’ hooker was held up.
However, that only laid the platform for the perfect script to be written.
Five minutes from time, in his last home outing for the Ospreys, Wales captain Morgan powered over the line for what turned out to be the winning score.
Edwards’ penalty at the death made sure of the result.
Ospreys: Jack Walsh; Iestyn Hopkins, Owen Watkin, Keiran Williams, Luke Morgan; Dan Edwards, Kieran Hardy; Steffan Thomas, Sam Parry, Tom Botha, Rhys Davies, Ryan Smith, James Ratti, Jac Morgan (c), Morgan Morris.
Replacements: Lewis Lloyd, Garyn Phillips, Ben Warren, Huw Sutton, Ross Moriarty, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Keelan Giles, Evardi Boshoff.
Scarlets: Blair Murray; Tom Rogers, Joe Roberts, Eddie James, Macs Page; Joe Hawkins, Dane Blacker; Kemsley Mathias, Ryan Elias, Henry Thomas, Jac Price, Max Douglas, Taine Plumtree, Josh Macleod (capt), Fletcher Anderson.
Replacements: Harry Thomas, Josh Morse, Harri O’Connor, Dan Davis, Jarrod Taylor, Archie Hughes, Carwyn Leggatt-Jones, Ioan Jones.
Live updates below:
