Bowen's boot lifts Scarlets to drier ground

Cardiff Blues 0 Llanelli Scarlets 6

He can coach a bit, this Gareth Jenkins. Shrugging off the huge disappointment of missing out on the Wales job and the loss of several international players, the Scarlets coach watched in silence as his side ground out an ugly victory in atrocious conditions at the Arms Park last night.

He can coach a bit, this Gareth Jenkins. Shrugging off the huge disappointment of missing out on the Wales job and the loss of several international players, the Scarlets coach watched in silence as his side ground out an ugly victory in atrocious conditions at the Arms Park last night.

Only two days after his dreams were kicked into touch by the WRU's shock decision to appoint Mike Ruddock, Jenkins took heart from the loud support of the visiting fans, who sang Sospan Fach and chanted "Gareth, we'll support you ever more" as they stood in the rain watching a tryless, error-ridden Celtic League match.

"There was a lot of motivation for the boys after this week," Scarlets skipper Vernon Cooper admitted after a hard-fought match. "We didn't need anything else - we just came out here and gave it all for Gareth."

The opening exchanges belonged to the Blues, with some clever kicks from fly-half Nick Robinson and full-back Craig Morgan keeping the visitors pinned on their line, but the conditions made it virtually impossible for either side to put together a string of phases. The entire south side of the pitch was a mud-bath which deepened as the match progressed.

The first quarter was punctuated by fights virtually every time the forwards came together. After the sixth brawl, in only the 12th minute, Irish referee Donal Courtney sent Scarlets flanker Chris Wyatt to the sin-bin after he threw a right hand at Blues scrum-half Ryan Powell. Wyatt's 10-minute break made no difference to the scoreline, which stayed at 0-0.

Scarlets scrum-half Mike Phillips was the next player to anger Courtney, who sin-binned the youngster at the end of the first half for some over-vigorous rucking. Phillips could be excused to feel aggrieved as he was going for the ball - something several Blues forwards couldn't say in a previous ruck that left railway tracks down the back of Scarlets No 8 Emyr Lewis.

Ironically the 14-man Llanelli side had the first shot at goal in the game, but fly-half Gareth Bowen's long-range effort fell short and the teams went into the break with the scorers still looking for something to do.

The Blues emerged from the changing rooms without captain and hooker Andrew Lewis, whose 250th game for Cardiff was cut short by a neck injury. Points were finally scored in the 48th minute, when Bowen slotted a 40-metre penalty goal after Blues lock Andy Moore committed a professional foul.

A piece of individual brilliance from Nick Robinson - who chipped a defender, regathered the ball and toed it ahead - gave the home side a chance to level the scores, but the fly-half went from hero to zero when his simple penalty attempt went wide.

Bowen doubled his side's score with a second penalty in the 69th minute, and the six-point margin prompted the Blues to begin rejecting shots at goal in favour of kicking for touch and going for the full seven points from a try.

The rain intensified and the mistakes doubled as both sides tired in the arduous conditions. The task of scoring a try proved beyond all 30 players and referee Courtney put everyone out of their misery after five minutes of injury time.

Cardiff Blues: C Morgan (A Moore, 67); N Walne, J Robinson, P Muller (M Allen, 54), J Vaughton; N Robinson, R Powell; J Yapp, A Lewis (capt) (R Thomas, 40), B Evans, C Quinnell, A Moore (J Brownrigg, 74), M Cockbain, N Thomas, R Sowden-Taylor (D Baugh, 59).

Llanelli Scarlets: B Davies; G Evans, T Selley (L Davies, 50), M Watkins, S Finau; G Bowen, M Phillips; D Maddocks, A Gravelle, J Davies, V Cooper (capt), A Jones, C Wyatt, I Boobyer, E Lewis (G Williams, 60).

Referee: Donal Courtney (Ireland).