United Rugby Championship: Scarlets 3-45 Glasgow Warriors – Kyle Rowe scores hat-trick

Glasgow moved up to second in the United Rugby Championship with a first league win at Scarlets in eight years.

Gregor Hiddleston, Scott Cummings and URC top-scorer Johnny Matthews also crossed, as well as claiming a penalty try, in an easy win in Llanelli.

Scarlets barely threatened to score in a hapless display but were hampered by three yellow cards.

A fourth win in a row rarely looked in doubt and saw the Warriors overtake Bulls to keep pace with league leaders Leinster.

There was precious little to enthuse about for Scarlets who slumped to their 10th defeat of the campaign.

Kieran Hardy made his 100th appearance for the region while Wales hooker Ryan Elias returned from injury but neither could prevent Scarlets trailing 14-3 after a dour first half.

Glasgow boss Franco Smith recalled five Scotland internationals in George Horne, Rory Darge, Scott Cummings, Zander Fagerson and Rowe, who opened the scoring inside six minutes.

Glasgow’s wing saw opposite number Tom Rogers shown a yellow card after their mid-air collision and swiftly exposed the space that left out wide with the opening try.

Scarlets had brief flashes with Tomi Lloyd’s burst and Ioan Lloyd’s penalty.

But when the Warriors required a try, they reverted to their ever-efficient line-out maul finished by hooker Hiddleston.

Scarlets had lost first-choice fly-half Sam Costelow in the week to a training ground injury and then lost back-up Lloyd who failed to emerge for the second half.

He was replaced by the unfortunate Dan Jones who, with his first touch of the ball, saw his kick charged down for lock Cummings to touch down just 40 seconds into the second half.

It was a body blow for the hosts and soon got worse for Jones, who was shown a yellow card for bringing down another Glasgow maul for a penalty try – and the bonus.

As Jones returned from the sin bin he passed Sam Lousi heading in the opposite direction for a late tackle on scrum-half Horne – Scarlets’ third yellow card.

Matthews finished a line-out drive from the resulting penalty for his 12th of the season before Stafford McDowall’s long pass handed Rowe an easy finish for his second.

And the wing completed his treble – and a man of the match display – from the footwork of Tom Jordan with the game’s last move.

Scarlets: Ioan Nicholas; Tom Rogers, Jonathan Davies, Eddie James, Tomi Lewis; Ioan Lloyd, Kieran Hardy; Wyn Jones, Ryan Elias, Sam Wainwright, Alex Craig, Sam Lousi, Teddy Leatherbarrow, Dan Davis, Vaea Fifita.

Replacements: Shaun Evans, Kemsley Mathias, Harri O’Connor, Morgan Jones, Carwyn Tuipulotu, Gareth Davies, Dan Jones, Ryan Conbeer.

Sin bins: Rogers (3), D Jones (53), Lousi (63)

Glasgow Warriors: Josh McKay; Sebastian Cancelliere, Stafford McDowall (capt), Tom Jordan, Kyle Rowe; Duncan Weir, George Horne; Nathan McBeth, Gregor Hiddleston, Zander Fagerson, Max Williamson, Scott Cummings, Ally Miller, Rory Darge, Henco Venter

Replacements: Johnny Matthews, Allan Dell, Lucio Sordoni, Sintu Manjezi, Gregor Brown, Thomas Gordon, Jamie Dobie, Duncan Munn

Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)

Assistant referees: Ben Whitehouse, John Darcy (WRU)

TMO: Stefano Roscini (FIR)