Scarlets coach Dwayne Peel spoke of his pride after his team fought back from a nightmare start to claim a vital 38-22 bonus point victory in the big URC derby clash with the Ospreys in Llanelli.
Peel’s team conceded a try inside 50 seconds and found themselves 17-0 down after 15 minutes in front of a crowd of 11,384 - the biggest for a URC game in Wales so far this season.
But they responded with a six-try blitz to secure the spoils, three of those coming when the Ospreys were down in numbers after having two players yellow carded in quick succession.
Reflecting on a fluctuating contest, Peel said: “I don’t think we looked like a rugby team for the first 15 minutes.
“Ropey is probably an understatement. I don’t know whether it was the big occasion, but there was error after error.
“I am proud of the resilience we showed after that. For the last 60 minutes, we were a good side.
“When the Ospreys had a few cards, we made them pay and that’s what the game is about. We managed that period well and were clinical when we needed to be.”
The man of the match award went to Scarlets back row forward Vaea Fifita, with Wales full-back Blair Murray among the men to touch down.
For the Ospreys, there were 12 points for try-scoring fly-half Dan Edwards, but they were to leave the ground empty-handed in terms of league points.
It was a win that nudged the Scarlets above their west Wales rivals in the table and keeps alive their hopes of making the play-offs.
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Commenting on his team’s play-off prospects, Peel said: “There is a lot of work to do. We have got four games left, we probably need to win two of them, if not three.
“Sides are going to take points off each other. What we can do is work on the next couple of matches and see where we are going into the last two rounds.
“We have got the Dragons at the Principality Stadium and then Leinster coming here which will be a huge occasion. So that’s two big games coming ahead.”
Giving his thoughts on the derby clash, Ospreys coach Mark Jones said: “We started the game really well. The first 20 minutes were very good from us.
“Fair play to the boys, coming away from home, they put their stamp on the game. I was dead chuffed around that.
“Then, after that, the discipline started to come into it and obviously the back-to-back yellow cards changed the whole format of the game. There were three tries, bang, bang, bang.
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“Credit to the Scarlets, they exploited the extra players really well. Their identification of space and their execution was good.
“From that point on, it’s very difficult to chase the game and, in the second half, we didn’t deal with their kicking game well enough. They put us on the back fence and forced some errors.
“We have just got to learn the lessons, dust ourselves off and go again.”
On the play-off battle, Jones added: “There are loads of opportunities. There are four games left, every team is beating every team.
“Clearly, we have lost an opportunity to put some more points on the board and give ourselves a better chance, but the league is going to go down to the last weekend, I am pretty sure of that.”
The two teams will meet again this weekend in the last 16 of the EPCR Challenge Cup down in Swansea.
“We have to switch our minds there now and focus on that,” said Jones.
“Neither team will be short of an edge. We might have an emotional response to this, but I am sure the Scarlets will have an emotional boost from the result.”
Adding his preview, Peel said: “We have got to do it all again. It’s a big challenge for us next week to go away and repeat.
“I am sure the Ospreys players will be hurting after that and it’s going to be a good game. We haven’t won in Swansea for a long time, so we need to go after that.”
