Scarlets hold off Glasgow

Fly-half Rhys Priestland kicked six penalties to guide the Scarlets to an 18-14 Magners League win over Glasgow at a rain-soaked Parc y Scarlets.

The home side looked in a comfortable position at 15-0 just after the break, until they conceded two tries in the space of four minutes from Duncan Weir and DTH van der Merwe.

But despite a late rally from Glasgow, who earned a losing bonus point, the Scarlets held on for their fifth league victory of the season to consolidate their second place in the table.

The Scarlets went into the game without seven frontline players but more than held their own during a first half played out in torrential rain, with youngsters Nick Reynolds on the wing and number eight Ben Morgan impressing.

Glasgow fly-half Ruaridh Jackson missed both his first-half penalty shots with poor attempts, while Priestland found the target with four out of his five penalty tries to put the hosts 12-0 up at half-time.

Priestland's first effort came on just seven minutes and he doubled the lead with a 17th-minute penalty.

Glasgow were not helped by the loss of skipper John Barclay to the sin bin after he kicked the ball out of a ruck. It allowed Priestland to put over two more penalties on 35 and 37 minutes.

The Scarlets began the second half well enough, with Priestland successful with a fifth penalty on 47 minutes to extend their lead to 15-0.

Sin-binning

But the sin-binning of lock Lou Reed for a professional foul proved crucial as Glasgow went over for two converted tries in the space of four minutes.

Down to 14 men, the Scarlets defence was quickly in disarray as replacement Weir skipped past two would-be tacklers for the first try.

And Glasgow got back to within a point as Max Evans broke through and put Van der Merwe over for the second try.

That set up a tense finale, although the hosts were able to gain a measure of breathing space when Glasgow were penalised for being in front of the kicker and Priestland knocked over his sixth penalty on 70 minutes.