Scarlets deny Zebre at the death

17 points: Aled Thomas

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Teams

• Scarlets
• Zebre

Also see

• Connacht brush Treviso aside
• Munster leave it late in Cardiff

Scarlets scored ten points in the final seven minutes to claim a hard-fought 22-13 victory over Zebre in Saturday's PRO12 clash at Parc y Scarlets.

Kristian Phillips scored the decisive try as the Scarlets climbed to second in the Pro12

Daniel Halangahu scored two penalties to Aled Thomas' one as the visitors took a 6-3 advantage at the break. Thomas added three more from the tee, but Matteo Pratichetti's touchdown looked to have given the Italian outfit that elusive win.

Instead, late scores from Phillips and Thomas secured the hosts' sixth league victory in eight.

Since Zebre's introduction into the Pro12 following Aironi's liquidation, they have struggled to adapt and had picked up just one point going into this encounter.

But they were impressive early on against the Scarlets. Although they didn't necessarily dominate the opposition, they restricted the hosts' chances.

It was the visitors who opened the scoring through a Halangahu penalty and, although they had further chances to extend their lead, the centre was off-target twice with the boot.

Gareth Owen and Filippo Ferrarini were then sin-binned as both sides were reduced to 14 men.

The home side initially dealt better with being a man down and Thomas levelled the scores with a three-pointer, but Halangahu regained Zebre's advantage just before half-time.

However, their good work was undone when they felt the wrath of the referee once again when Tito Tebaldi was yellow carded early in the second period. And the Italian team were made to pay as Thomas kicked successive penalties to give the Scarlets a 9-6 lead.

Despite that blow, the visitors battled back and Pratichetti touched down for a converted try from a turnover, although the Scarlets' stand-off reduced that deficit to 13-12 with 13 minutes to go.

But in the end, the Welsh side had too much quality with Phillips going over and Thomas adding a penalty to give them the win.

The scorers:

For Scarlets:
Try: Phillips
Con: Thomas
Pens: Thomas 5
Yellow card: Owen

For Zebre:
Try: Pratichetti
Con: Halangahu
Pens: Halangahu 2
Yellow cards: Tebaldi; Ferrarini

Scarlets: 15 Morgan Stoddart, 14 Kristian Phillips, 13 Gareth Maule, 12 Gareth Owen, 11 Andy Fenby, 10 Aled Thomas, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 Kieran Murphy, 7 Johnathan Edwards (c), 6 Tomás Vallejos, 5 Johan Snyman, 4 George Earle, 3 Deacon Manu, 2 Kirby Myhill, 1 Phil John
Replacements: 16 Craig Hawkins, 17 Shaun Hopkins, 18 Peter Edwards, 19 Sione Timani, 20 Craig Price, 21 Aled Davies, 22 Owen Williams, 23 Nick Reynolds.

Zebre: 15 Ruggero Trevisan, 14 David Odiete, 13 Matteo Pratichetti,12 Daniel Halangahu, 11 Samuele Pace, 10 Paolo Buso, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Andries Van Schalkwyk, 7 Filippo Cristiano (c), 6 Filippo Ferrarini, 5 Filippo Cazzola, 4 Josh Sole, 3 Luca Redolfini, 2 Andrea Manici, 1 Matias Aguero
Replacements:16 Andrea De Marchi, 17 Luciano Leibson, 18 Carlo Fazzari, 19 Emiliano Caffini, 20 Nicola Belardo, 21 Alberto Chiesa, 22 Leonardo Sarto, 23 Alberto Benettin.

Venue: Parc y Scarlets
Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU)
Assistant Referees: Greg Morgan, Alan Jenkins (both WRU)
TMO: Tony Rowlands (WRU)