A late Alex Cuthbert try saw the Cardiff Blues edge out regional rivals Scarlets as the capital-based outfit won 29-27 in a thrilling encounter at the Cardiff Arms Park.
Discipline was a concern for the West Walians as Wayne Pivac’s side had three men sent to the bin for indiscretions in a mistake-ridden match.
Rhys Patchell opened the scoring within a matter of minutes with a penalty after early pressure saw the visitors penalised.
Their pressure continued but a misplaced Patchell pass saw Gareth Davies able to carry the ball out of defence with a lengthy break but the Scarlets could not capitalise and the ball ended up in touch a phase later.
However, the resulting line-out saw an overthrow which Ken Owens pounced on to score the first try of the day with Aled Thomas adding the extras.
The Blues continued to press but another error while in possession resulted in another Scarlets score.
A loose clearance kick gifted Tom James the chance to counter from deep and, having beaten his first man, his intended pass was picked off by DTH Van Der Merwe and the Canadian was able to run to the try-line unopposed.
Eventually the Blues did get their reward as Cory Allen was given a run-in on the right wing following a break by centre partner Ray Lee-Lo.
Almost immediately, the Scarlets earned themselves a penalty and Thomas made no mistake in opening up a seven-point lead.
Jarrod Hoeata could possibly consider himself lucky to have missed out on a yellow card having been penalised for raking his boot on Morgan Allen when the Scarlets back-rower was lying prostate at a maul.
The visitors extended their lead to ten after James Down was penalised for not rolling away at a ruck.
And they nearly scored again almost immediately after Gareth Owen ripped the ball off Dan Fish and danced his way into the 22 but the move eventually fell apart after a knock-on in midfield.
However, the Scarlets came back again following the clearance kick with breaks from Steff Evans and Hadleigh Parkes nearly carving the Blues defence to shreds but a wayward offload from Owen ended up in touch.
The home side ended the half the better and following a strong Blues maul, second row Lewis Rawlins saw yellow for collapsing.
And it could have been two in the bin after Tom Price took the lifter in the resulting line-out.
However the Blues could not capitalise from the following maul and the ten-point gap remained as the teams went in for their half-time oranges.
Despite being a man down, the Scarlets started the second-half the more composed of the sides as both teams continued to make errors.
But just before the Scarlets were to be restored to their full compliment, they suffered a body blow as sharp passing saw James released down the left wing who was able to feed Fish with an offload to score but the gap was only reduced to five as Patchell missed the conversion.
The Scarlets found themselves down to 14 once more as winger Evans went to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on when a Blues try looked likely.
And a one-man disadvantage soon became two as Emyr Phillips, the hooker in the unfamiliar position of openside flanker saw yellow for collapsing a maul.
Immediately the deficit proved costly as Kristian Dacey forced his way over from a maul with Patchell’s conversion putting the Blues in front as the game headed in to the final quarter.
An over-cooked kick-off headed straight into touch from visiting fly-half Thomas and it became apparent that the Scarlets were in considerable trouble.
Cuthbert was another who could consider himself lucky to escape yellow after he was deemed to have knocked-on deliberately but strangely no yellow card was given.
But the Scarlets continued to build phases despite their numerical disadvantage and it payed off as a determined snipe from scrum-half Davies saw the Wales international put the visitors back on front.
With ten minutes left, the Blues won a kickable penalty but opted for the corner instead as they searched for a try to edge back out in front.
The home side went through 21 phases in the Scarlets 22 but eventually their attack came to an end when Patchell was tackled into touch by Van Der Merwe.
However, they were right back in the 22 as James again returned a clearance kick with interest.
And after several phases on the try-line, Cuthbert forced his way over with Patchell adding the extras to put the Blues in front with just minutes remaining.
The Scarlets went in search of another score to steal victory but it was in vain as one final infringement sealed their fate and gave the Blues another dramatic win.
