Five key points for Welsh rugby from URC weekend

It may have been a whitewash for the Welsh regions in the United Rugby Championship (URC) but that only tells half the story.

For the first time this season, Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets all suffered defeat on a topsy-turvy weekend.

But how they analyse the losses depends on whether the glass is half empty or half full.

The weekend began with a defensive horror show by Cardiff and ended with Ospreys firing blanks.

But those games came either side of two agonising last-gasp defeats for Scarlets and Dragons.

And there were plenty of individual performances to please Warren Gatland and his Wales coaches who again did the rounds of the URC games.

Two more Wales back rowers reminded Gatland of their talents as Dragons pair Shane Lewis-Hughes and Taine Basham impressed in the 33-30 defeat by Sharks.

Lewis-Hughes has been a revelation since his summer move from Cardiff, fourth in the league for turnovers and muscled up against a physical South African pack.

Basham capped a man of the match display with a try in his first game of the season as he recovered from tendonitis issues.

"Taine was all-action, as we know he can be, and that's just the start from him," said Dragons head coach Dai Flanagan.

"Shane's been excellent too. He had a massive impact at the start of that game and has transformed the maul defence with Sam Hobbs as coach.

"It gives confidence to our pack to believe if teams want to go five metres out last minute, we will stop them."

Sadly they could not hold out in the 85th minute when Sharks denied Dragons a first win over one of South Africa's big four.

Cardiff's tackling may have been found wanting but Corey Domachowski and Kieron Assiratti utterly dominated the scrums against champions Glasgow Warriors.

It came at a cost, however, with shoulder and back issues causing both to be replaced at half-time of the 52-36 loss.

"The scrum has gone well two weeks in a row. We wanted to see if our front five could back it up with a short turnaround between games and the set piece really did that," said head coach Matt Sherratt.

But Cardiff could now be facing a front-row crisis this week before facing Scarlets with hooker Liam Belcher (hand) and Evan Lloyd (hip) also leaving the field.

It meant Cardiff played 30 minutes down to 14 men with number eight Alun Lawrence throwing into the lineout, with surprising success.

Ben Thomas impressed again and has the most successful carries (22) in the league, while no player has won more turnovers than flanker Dan Thomas.

Scarlets have become the perennial slow starters of the URC and the narrow margin of a 24-23 loss to Connacht will be no consolation for head coach Dwayne Peel.

Five wins from their last 25 games is only going to heap pressure on him and his team.

However they next travel to the Arms Park where they have won for the past three years with Peel admitting they "owe them one" for the loss in Llanelli a fortnight ago.

One positive of the last couple of weeks for Scarlets has been the return of captain Josh Macleod from a long-term knee injury.

The Wales flanker has endured an injury-plagued couple of years but showed his class with a man of the match display against Connacht.

"I'm getting back into the swing of things and it's good to get a full 80 minutes for the first time in nine or 10 months," he said.

"It's good on a personal note but that doesn't matter. We need to turn things around and close out games because come the end of the season, that's what counts and that's all I'm thinking about."

Dan Edwards may be the league's highest points scorer but even he could not galvanise Ospreys to avoid a first blank sheet since Boxing Day 2019.

It was not helped by conceding a try after just 11 seconds when Owen Watkin spilled the kick-off in torrid conditions in Cork.

However head coach Toby Booth bemoaned his team's errors at the other and of the pitch after the 23-0 loss to Munster.

“We’ve come up short. There were two top-eight sides from last year, one converted their chances and one hasn’t.

“You are always going to get less opportunities in those conditions, so you have to be clinical.

“We got up there more than they did but we didn’t convert it and that's the tale of the game.

“We huffed and puffed, and we were brave and tough, but ultimately, you are better off without the ball."

"The only time I've done any lineout throwing was at school in Ysgol Llanhari, chucking the ball at a basketball hoop at lunchtime."

Cardiff number eight Alun Lawrence was successful with four lineout throws from four attempts after stepping in as a makeshift hooker.