Gareth Davies continued his rich Arms Park form with a third successive try double at the ground, with head coach Dwayne Peel describing his scrum-half as ‘the ultimate professional’.
In his 18th season for the club, Davies defied his 35 years, racing in from more than 60 metres for the match-clinching interception score, after sniping for a blindside try earlier in the second half to help the Scarlets secure a 21-17 victory over high-flying Cardiff.
Remarkably, the Wales and British & Irish Lions nine has now scored a brace of tries in each of his three previous outings at the ground and unsurprisingly picked up the BKT URC player-of-the-match medal at the final whistle.
The tries also took him to 57 on the all-time URC chart – the highest by any Welshman and just one try behind Tim Visser and DTH van der Merwe in fourth spot in the rankings.
“I can’t speak highly enough about him because he’s the ultimate professional and keeps himself in great shape,” said Peel.
“He said to me before the game he fancied another double so he backed that up.”
Speaking to BBC Wales, Peel added: “It wasn’t great for the nerves. Three yellow cards put us in a difficult position, but we fought hard.
“We took our opportunities when they came and I thought we fought well for each other. It was a great win.”
As for Davies, he said: “I enjoy a couple of tries at the Arms Park, I enjoy playing here.
“It was a good game of rugby, Cardiff threw everything at us and we weathered the storm. I thought we played well in the second half and deserved the win.
“Peely spoke at half-time that we’d get rewarded for our defensive effort in the first half, and we saw it out in the end.
“Nobody thought we were going to come here and win, so we’re happy with that.”
With Dwayne rushing off to his sister’s wedding party, having attended the ceremony earlier in the day, forwards coach Albert van den Berg spoke to the media afterwards.
He said: “Cardiff had a lot of opportunities, it’s the most I’ve seen us having to defend, but credit to the boys, they stuck in there, dug deep and worked hard for each other.
“We knew coming here that it was going to be physical, it was going to be tough, Cardiff have been going well. Peely has spoken about being here to compete and we showed that tonight.
“It was great to see so many fans here with us again and good to be able to give something back to them.”
Scarlets now turn their attention to the big Boxing Day derby against the Ospreys at Parc y Scarlets.
Tickets are still available for the match HERE