Comebacks, capitulation, ill-discipline and injuries

It was another eventful week for Welsh rugby on and off the field.

It started with a Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) extraordinary general meeting (EGM) that lasted three hours with lots of rhetoric but no answers on how the governing body intends to cut a men’s professional side.

On the field , the four Welsh teams that still exist returned to United Rugby Championship (URC) action.

A pulsating Welsh derby provided a captivating Cardiff comeback against a stunned Scarlets side, there was an impressive home win for Ospreys over Sharks but the Dragons were humbled by Bulls at Rodney Parade.

BBC Sport Wales analyses the 15th round of the URC.

Cardiff are the only Welsh team in realistic play-off contention and could not afford to lose at Parc y Scarlets after fellow play-off contenders Connacht, Lions, Bulls and Munster secured bonus-point wins.

There are four points covering Lions in fourth and Connacht in ninth with the top eight reaching the playoffs and three league games remaining.

“All the teams are beating each other and you never know how it's going to end up,” said Cardiff head coach Corniel van Zyl.

“At least we can control what we do and give us another shot.

The situation seemed hopeless as Cardiff trailed Scarlets 24-7 going into the final 10 minutes but they responded with three tries and 21 unanswered points.

“It shows the character in the squad to never give up,” said Van Zyl.

“After being 17 points down and all of a sudden we scored a try, we knew we needed two more.

“Sometimes it's easier to come from behind, chase the game and throw everything at it.”

Former Scarlets prop Javan Sebastian was the unlikely hero as the Cardiff replacement scored two of the late tries in a player-of-the-match intervention.

“He has been such a valuable player for us this year and fantastic since he's come in,” said Cardiff lock Josh McNally.

“He has a history at Scarlets also, so to see him come on to change the game and get those two scores is huge and well-deserved.

“All the boys coming on made a huge impact and that’s been a huge growth for us in the last 18 months."

While Cardiff were overjoyed, Scarlets were devastated.

The quip they were doing their bit for Welsh rugby by allowing Cardiff to win did not go down well with their disgruntled supporters.

The hosts relinquished a 17-point lead with the final 10-minute capitulation, finishing with 13 men as Taine Plumtree and Blair Murray were shown yellow cards.

This came after the hosts dominated the third quarter with tries from Plumtree, Murray, scrum-half Dane Blacker and centre Johnny Williams seemingly setting up a bonus-point win.

“We are hugely disappointed with that result, the boys were devastated,” said Scarlets interim director of rugby Nigel Davies.

“It was a tough one to take.”

Scarlets were punished for not building on their superiority.

“We did enough to win but we got a few moments wrong in that last 15 minutes which turned the game Cardiff's way," said Davies.

“The effort was admirable but we're not converting our chances which is hurting us.

“It is a reflection of the season we've had. We've been competitive but haven't been clinical enough at key times.”

Scarlets remain in 14th with only Dragons and Zebre below them.

Wales head coach Steve Tandy was one of the WRU representatives at Llanelli where he witnessed two worrying wing injuries before for the four summer matches in June and July.

Scarlets wing Ellis Mee was forced off in the early exchanges with an ankle injury, before Cardiff flyer Mason Grady suffered a serious looking thumb injury just after half-time.

A quick television close-up of Grady‘s hand showed the severity of the issue with the pictures not for the faint-hearted, with Cardiff later confirming it was a fractured thumb.

Tandy is already sweating on the fitness of hooker Dewi Lake and fly-half Sam Costelow, who was at Parc y Scarlets on crutches after recent ankle surgery, while Harlequins fly-half Jarrod Evans suffered a shoulder injury against Bath on Saturday.

Wales have an uncapped warm-up against Barbarians on Saturday 27 June at Twickenham before matches against Fiji, Argentina and South Africa in the new Nations Championship in July.

Tandy will have also left Llanelli pondering the Plumtree problem.

The returning Scarlets flanker was brilliant at times, scoring a try, creating another with a brilliant athletic assist and helping dismantle the malfunctioning Cardiff line-out.

Plumtree was on course for player-of-the-match before his ill-discipline again reared his head as another yellow card, his seventh of the season for club and country, cost Scarlets dear.

There were warning signs in the first half when he was penalised following an altercation with Wales rival Alex Mann, when Scarlets were originally given a penalty in an attacking position.

Plumtree then followed this up with a cynical ruck offence for which he was sin-binned.

The 26-year-old has the potential to fill the Wales number six role with the nation not having many players with his physical attributes.

But his discipline is in danger of becoming a liability.

Another west Wales side have the ability to derail Cardiff‘s play off bid when Ospreys travel to the Arms Park next Friday night.

Mark Jones’ side recorded a 21-17 win over Sharks in Bridgend on Saturday night.

Led by inspirational flanker Jac Morgan, it was an outstanding Ospreys’ effort as they were down to 14 men for the final 15 minutes with a move to uncontested scrums.

While remaining mathematically possible, Ospreys’ play-off dreams are all but over with the teams above them winning this weekend.

It still promises to be an intriguing week on and off the field between Cardiff and Ospreys.

That is an Ospreys side, whose owners Y11 Sports & Media are still officially in discussions to buy Cardiff from the WRU, a process that started in January.

There are doubts whether any deal could be agreed with the latest deadline ending on Wednesday, two days before Cardiff and Ospreys face each other.

With no bosses prepared to answer direct questions on the issue, it is left to coaches to field the queries.

“I haven't spoken to anybody about that,” said Ospreys head coach Jones.

“I have been solely focused with the coaches on preparing the team and making sure we got a result against Sharks.

“We made a decision some time ago just to focus on what we are here to do, which is prepare for rugby games.

“We know there are people doing their absolute best to make sure the Ospreys are in the strongest possible position it can be for Welsh rugby. I trust everybody at that level to get on with that and my job is to prepare the team.

“It's concerning because there are livelihoods at stake.

“This is not new, this has been going on for most of the season and as much as it is tough, the boys deal with it in their own way and have done a cracking job.

“We want to keep going as we have done because I can't speak highly enough of everybody in the organisation.”

Dragons’ priority for this season now is the Challenge Cup with the away European semi-final against Montpellier on Sunday, 3 May.

Following their cup exploits, Filo Tiatia‘s side were brought back down to earth with a thumping 47-7 home loss to Bulls after Dragons had decided to rest key men Aaron Wainwright, Ben Carter and Angus O’Brien.

“We are disappointed," said Tiatia.

"We conceded 15 penalties and 12 turnovers in the game and couldn't apply pressure.

"We left points on the field and didn't execute. We didn't apply scoreboard pressure.”

Dragons return to the scene of the Challenge Cup quarter-final win against Zebre next Friday in the URC basement battle of 15th against 16th.

”We must go again and all these games are important,” said Tiatia.

"We are trying to stay in the scrap and freshen some bodies up.

"We are looking to give players an opportunity to show they are ready to go and we know where some players are at.”