Dwayne Peel’s side inflicted just Leinster’s second defeat of the season with a 32-22 win in Llanelli
19:10, 26 Apr 2025Updated 19:14, 26 Apr 2025
Taine Plumtree dives over for a try against Leinster(Image: Ian WIlliams/Huw Evans Agency)
The Scarlets produced a remarkable 35-22 win over league leaders Leinster at Parc y Scarlets to boost their United Rugby Championship play-off hopes.
Tries from Gareth Davies, Tom Rogers, Taine Plumtree and Joe Roberts inflicted just the second defeat upon Leinster this season and kept the west Walians firmly in the race to reach the top eight. Leinster had travelled to Llanelli without a number of first-choice players, but the runaway league leaders – who hadn’t lost to Welsh opposition since January 2022 – still had a host of Ireland internationals in their ranks.
As for the Scarlets, their last win over Irish opposition came back in March 2021.
Dwayne Peel’s side were boosted by the return of Wales duo Sam Costelow and Johnny Williams for their final home game of the season. There was the odd sign of rust for Costelow, as one early penalty attempt sailed wide in his first outing since January.
It wouldn’t matter as moments later, a lovely tip-on pass from Henry Thomas allowed Plumtree to skip away from the Leinster defence, before feeding scrum-half Davies to score the opening points.
The Scarlets‘ bright start continued, with Costelow knocking over a penalty in the 13th minute to extend their lead.
Leinster fly-half Ross Byrne got the visitors on the scoreboard from the tee, before more expansive attack from the Scarlets created the space for Costelow to fire a crossfield kick to the left wing for Wales wing Rogers to race over for their second try.
Having looked back to his best in that attacking set, there was a reminder to come that this was Costelow’s first appearance in nearly four months.
From the kick-off, he dummied to exit before his eventual clearance kick was charged down – allowing Jamie Osborne to score Leinster’s first try.
The Scarlets would bounce back, with Byrne seeing his pass picked off by Plumtree following pressure from Scarlets skipper Josh Macleod.
Back Leinster came. Following a break by Liam Turner, replacement lock Diarmuid Mangan was able to burrow over and reduce the deficit to seven at the break. Join WalesOnline Rugby’s WhatsApp Channel here to get the breaking news sent straight to your phone for free
However, having caused Leinster’s defence problems in the first-half, the Scarlets again showed what they could do almost immediately in the second-half.
From a scrum, they got full-back Blair Murray into space around the Leinster edge, with the Wales star finding centre Roberts on his inside shoulder for the bonus point try.
No. 8 James Culhane got one back for Leinster, before Ioan Lloyd extended their lead from the tee heading into the final quarter.
Leinster back-row Alex Soroka had a try chalked off with eight minutes to go for double movement.
However, a huge hit by Vaea Fifita resulted in a penalty that Lloyd stroked over to seal the win that took the Scarlets up to seventh in the table.