Following round 16 where all four regions suffered defeats in one weekend for the fifth time this season, round 17 saw three Welsh wins.
Elsewhere in the league, Munster went top of the table with an away win in Edinburgh on Friday night, there were wins for three South African teams as the Bulls & Lions beat Benetton and Glasgow respectively whilst the Stormers won in Galway against Connacht.
Yet the shock of the round came in Belfast as a late John Cooney penalty saw Ulster pip Leinster to all but confirm their place in the playoffs and complete a league double over their interprovincial rivals.
But what happened in the matches involving the Welsh sides from the weekend?
Scarlets end losing run
The Scarlets picked up their first win outside of Wales in over two years after a 32-18 win over Zebre Parma on Friday night. A brace from Wales scrum half Gareth Davies was sandwiched in-between tries from captain Ryan Elias and wing Tomi Lewis, with two Sam Costelow penalties sealing their fourth win of the season.
Despite Dwayne Peel’s side making seven clean breaks and beating 19 defenders, they did miss 23 tackles and only had a tackle success percentage of 84%.
Zebre had Italian international Lorenzo Pani in the back three but struggled to build momentum after a couple of phases despite encouraging attacking play.
Blindside flanker Taine Plumtree certainly caught the eye with a good performance with two turnovers and a fantastic offload to winger Lewis in the buildup to Davies’ first try.
Before the scrum half scored his second with a trademark interception from inside his own half, which Scarlets and Wales supporters have all been used to over the last few seasons.
Without the physical presence of Sam Lousi and Vaea Fifita, the Scarlets pack fronted up well with second row Morgan Jones making 14 carries. Scottish international Alex Craig has been a real standout in a poor pack this season as he made 12 carries and 13 tackles on Friday night.
Elsewhere, Carwyn Tuipulotu had a good outing as he made 16 carries and 15 tackles.
The result ensures that the Scarlets won’t be finishing bottom of the table or the worst performing Welsh side, yet they still have a slight possibility of leapfrogging the Sharks to finish their season in 13th place.
Disappointing Dragons
On Saturday afternoon, a Welsh derby took place between the Ospreys and the Dragons, with the visitors looking for their first away win in Swansea since October 2010.
It was an encouraging opening with two Will Reed penalties giving them a 6-0 lead and they managed to stop the Ospreys’ set-piece motoring in the first 30 minutes and were solid in defence.
Before discipline became a real problem for Dai Flanagan’s side, with Aaron Wainwright and Dane Blacker both being shown yellow cards by referee Ben Breakspear.
Both cards were costly, as the Ospreys scored 19 points during that period.
When back to full strength, the Dragons did manage to get a foothold in the game through a try from fly-half Reed and spotting space in behind the Ospreys defence when kicking for territory.
Yet they created chances in the final quarter with youngsters such as Ewan Rosser and Joe Westwood making dents in the Ospreys defence but Flanagan’s side couldn’t turn breaks into tries.
But at the end of the game, they had conceded 20 penalties in total, with only three games since the beginning of the URC in 2022 seeing a team penalised 20 or more times.
Teams look to give away less than 10 penalties per game, to concede 20 in one match won’t please Flanagan at all.
Ospreys still in the hunt
On the other side of the result in Swansea, the Ospreys kept their top 8 hopes alive with a bonus point win, it wasn’t the best of performances, but as head coach Toby Booth pointed out post match. “You can’t get more than five.”
They eventually broke down the Dragons defence after several forward carries, which hooker Dewi Lake crossed from short range on his 50th appearance.
When Blacker joined Wainwright in the sin bin, Booth’s side used a lineout move from the training ground for their second try, the Ospreys tend to have the hooker either joining the maul or receiving the ball at pace to run around to the openside to create an attack.
With a lineout just outside the Dragons 22, they opt for a set-play, with Morgan Morris being a part of the set-piece and peeling around to the blindside whilst Lake acts as a decoy. The number 8 makes the break before offloading to Reuben Morgan-Williams who has an easy run in for the try.
It was back to the rolling maul at the start of the second half with Lake scoring his second, before a lineout move that didn’t quite go to plan saw centre Keiran Williams score the bonus point try.
After the two heavy defeats in Pretoria and Dublin, Booth will be pleased to see his side back to winning ways whilst their outside chance of a top 8 finish goes down to the final round of the season.
Cardiff win in South Africa
There’s been a recurring theme surrounding Cardiff as they have picked up several losing bonus points in the URC. However in Durban, they managed to claim the full five points with a convincing victory over the Sharks. Which continues their 100% winning record over the South African side.
Matt Sherratt’s side hadn’t won a game since Boxing Day and it was their first away win since beating the Dragons at Rodney Parade in October.
Whilst John Plumtree’s side has had a poor season domestically, they had made several changes with the majority of the strongest squad resting ahead of their Challenge Cup final with Gloucester at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
After an early try from number 8 Alun Lawrence, the hosts were reduced to 14 men following flanker Tina Mavesere’s dangerous tackle on Cardiff fullback Cameron Winnett.
The try bonus point was wrapped up after 33 minutes as the impressive Ben Donnell scored before inside centre Wills Halaholo danced his way through a poor Sharks defence, James Botham crossed for the fourth before Ellis Bevan and Gabriel Hamer-Webb made a meal of a break which looked easier to score than not.
Despite tries for Diego Appollis and Curwin Bosch, the South African side were no match for the Blue and Blacks as Welsh international Mason Grady crossed for the game’s final try.
Whilst there might not have been many competitive sides against the Welsh teams this weekend, it is good to see Welsh victories in the URC, especially as all four teams suffered heavy defeats the round before.
Next season will be a tougher challenge with budget cutting from £5.2m to £4.5m, which will be nearly impossible to compete with sides with much bigger squads such as Leinster and sides stacked with quality like the Bulls.
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