United Rugby Championship: Scarlets 34-28 Benetton

Scarlets bounced back from two heavy defeats with a hard fought bonus-point victory over Benetton.

Dane Blacker starred at scrum-half scoring tries in either half, while Rob Evans crossed on his 150th appearance for the Llanelli region.

Benetton prop Tomas Galo also bagged a couple of tries on a night where momentum swung back and forth.

The television match official often took centre stage, with Scarlets wing Steff Evans harshly denied two tries.

Scarlets were in desperate need of a result after conceding almost 100 points to Munster and Leinster in the last two rounds.

Both sides were much changed from their last outings, with Scarlets losing 10 players to Wales' autumn squad and it showed in some early frantic exchanges.

Blacker, making the most of a start in the absence of Gareth Davies and Kieran Hardy, was a livewire and made a superb break in the build-up to the opening try, which was finished off by prop Rob Evans under the posts.

Fly-half Dan Jones, back in the starting XV with Sam Costelow rested, enjoyed a 100% record from the kicking tee.

Blacker was rewarded with a score of his own soon after as Scarlets treated the crowd to some champagne rugby.

Evans led the counter-attack from inside their own half with Aaron Shingler and Sam Lousi producing some stunning out-the-back-door offloads to release Scott Williams at pace, who then sent Blacker through to score.

Benetton then enjoyed their own spell of pressure and, despite some solid Scarlets defence, eventually broke through on the half-hour mark and it was nothing less than they deserved.

Monti Ioane produced a clean break before offloading to scrum-half Dewaldt Duvenage who had the pace to beat the defenders. The TMO looked at a suspected forward pass but could not find a clear angle to overturn the on-field decision.

Rhyno Smith was successful with the conversion.

The Italians nearly scored straight after the restart with Scarlets caught napping, but the hosts were just about let off the hook as they took a 14-7 lead in at half-time.

Benetton started brightly after the break. Their prop Galo broke the line and showed the pace and a side-step a half-back would have been proud of, before stretching to ground the ball over the line.

The TMO was brought in and despite Galo appearing to have picked up the ball from an offside position, could find no reason to disallow the try, much to the boos of the Llanelli crowd.

Smith converted to briefly level the scores, with Jones adding a 35-metre penalty to keep their noses in front.

Momentum then swung again as Scarlets enjoyed a spell of possession and were nearly rewarded with their third try.

Jones, with a penalty advantage, put through a delightful grubber kick which appeared to be grounded by Evans' elbow.

The TMO's deliberations added a bit of drama, but on this occasion did not give the benefit of the doubt to the attacking team.

Scarlets rallied with a 14-man driving lineout try, a decision which again went upstairs before being awarded, with hooker Marc Jones the beneficiary.

Benetton hit straight back, with Galo getting his second of the evening after some good work from his fellow forwards.

Momentum swung once more, with player of the match Williams and Blacker combining like they did in the first half to secure the bonus-point try.

Angus O'Brien added a penalty to extend the lead, but Benetton were not done as their wing Tommaso Menoncello plucked out a loose pass on halfway to sprint home for an interception try.

Evans appeared to have had the final say, running in a try in the corner, but he was once again denied by the TMO for being offside in what was a breathless night at Parc y Scarlets.

Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel told BBC Sport Wales: "I was really pleased for the group because we had a number of players that were unavailable.

"It was ebb and flow. At times I thought we were in control and then a silly error would let them back into it, but we scored some nice tries.

"We defended them well in the 22, they were big men, fully loaded with a number of Italian internationals in their team, so I'm delighted for the boys that we were able to get the win."

Scarlets: Ioan Nicholas; Ryan Conbeer, Steff Hughes, Scott Williams (capt), Steff Evans; Dan Jones, Dane Blacker; Rob Evans, Marc Jones, Samson Lee, Sam Lousi, Jac Price, Aaron Shingler, Shaun Evans, Blade Thomson.

Replacements: Daf Hughes, Phil Price, Javan Sebastian, Lloyd Ashley, Iestyn Rees, Luke Davies, Angus O'Brien, Tom Rogers.

Benetton: Andries Coetzee, Tommaso Menoncello, Ignacio Brex, Marco Zanon, Monty Ioane, Rhyno Smith, Dewaldt Duvenage (capt), Thomas Gallo, Hame Faiva, Tiziano Pasquali, Irné Herbst, Carl Wegner, Giovanni Pettinelli, Sebastian Negri, Abraham Steyn.

Replacements: Giacomo Nicotera, Cherif Traore, Ivan Nemer, Federico Ruzza, Lorenzo Cannone, Callum Braley, Leonardo Marin, Luca Morisi.

Referee: Chris Busby (IRFU)

Assistant referees: Rhys Jones & Gareth Newman (WRU)

TMO: Brian MacNeice (IRFU)