Thursday 26 December 2019 19:52, UK
Cardiff ground out a tough 16-12 win against the Dragons, while Scarlets had too much power for the Ospreys.
Cardiff Blues ground out a 16-12 win in a fiercely-fought derby with the Dragons before a sell-out crowd at the Arms Park.
The hosts were outscored by two tries to one but two penalties and a conversion from Jarrod Evans and a penalty from Jason Tovey were just enough to give Blues a valuable four points.
Shane Lewis-Hughes scored their only try with Taine Basham and Matthew Screech responding with tries for Dragons. Sam Davies added a conversion.
Blues coach John Mulvihill said it was the perfect way to end 2019 but there is plenty of work to do ahead of the next clash against the Scarlets on January 3.
"We've won four in a row in the PRO14, which is a great way to end the year. Our pool is really tough, and all the teams are doing really but we're not far from second place, " Mulvihill told the Cardiff Blues website.
"Those derbies are always going to be tough against a Dragons side who had a good win last week. You'll take the points, but when we look back at it we probably won't be happy with certain parts of our game and we'll need to improve before our next game against Scarlets.
"We got lulled into playing a little bit too much rugby around halfway in those conditions, and that's how Scarlets lost the game last week.
"We played into their hands in the last 20 minutes, but when we were in control and stuck to the gameplan we looked really good. When we stuck on to the ball for too long in the wrong areas is when we got ourselves into trouble.
"One of the biggest things was our discipline. Last week, we gave away 14 penalties, but this week we gave away six by half time and didn't give one away in the second half until the 81st minute.
"The boys deserve credit for that. We worked on the breakdown and they came at us hard in that area and we were a lot better.
Scarlets secured a record 44-0 win over Ospreys to move into second place in Conference B of the Guinness PRO14.
Two tries each from wings Steffan Evans and Ryan Conbeer along with a further scores from Kieran Hardy and Josh Macleod condemned the Ospreys to their 10th consecutive defeat. Leigh Halfpenny and Angus O'Brien also kicked 14 points between them.
Scarlets made a purposeful start, with some terrific interplay between backs and forwards stretching the Ospreys defence allowing Halfpenny to kick them into an early lead.
It was a dismal end to 2019 for the Ospreys who are now bottom of Conference A after falling to their 10th defeat in a row.
