Here are the latest rugby headlines on Sunday, January 8.
Patchell's last-ditch attempt
Rhys Patchell made a last ditch case for inclusion in Warren Gatland's Six Nations squad as he helped fire the Scarlets to an unlikely victory over Cardiff.
The 28-year-old has been plagued by injury over the past few seasons but was imperious at the Arms Park. His running game ran Cardiff ragged, and his break from deep in the first-half paved the way for Jonathan Davies to score.
"I think that was Patch's best game for a while," said Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel.
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"What I liked about Patch's performance is he took the line on which is something we've encouraged him to do more. He's a big man so he needs to be running at the line, and I think he did that today. He made the line break when Johnny kicked over the top for Jonathan Davies' try."
With Gareth Anscombe currently sidelined there is a vacancy at outside-half, and given Pachell's versatility who'd bet against the Scarlets man sneaking into the Six Nations squad.
He was the starting 10 in Gatland's final match as Wales coach in the 2019 Rugby World Cup bronze medal match against New Zealand but has not started a game for the national team since, making just two replacement appearances under Wayne Pivac. Patchell was capped 19 times during Gatland's first reign.
Peel and Young baffled by refereeing calls
Dwayne Peel and Dai Young were left baffled by some of the calls made by referee Joy Neville during the Scarlets' 28-22 victory over Cardiff at the Arms Park.
Scarlets head coach Peel was bemused by Neville's decision not to award Lopeti Timani a red card after the Tongan lock made direct contact with force to the face of young centre Joe Roberts.
On Boxing Day Scarlets back-rower Tomas Lezana was red carded for a high tackle against the Ospreys which had a lot less force than Timani's hit.
"Yes," said Peel when asked if he was surprised Timani didn't get shown a red card."
"What I'd say is consistency is the thing. I spoke in the week around the consistency of these decisions.
"A few weeks back we lost Sam Lousi to a tackle which didn't look as bad. All I'd ask is for consistency around it, and we've got a part to play around that as coaches.
"The body height etc has to be lower. It is what it is.
"We'll move on and take it"
Cardiff director of rugby Dai Young was also confused by Neville's decision to award the Scarlets third try. Johnny McNicholl made a break upfield before speculatively hoofing the ball forward for Jonathan Davies to score.
Having looked at the replays Young believes Davies was offside and the try should have been disallowed.
"The reality is I don't think we got many calls but we've got to look at ourselves," said Young.
"I thought we had a tough call there to be honest with you but I'm more interested in looking at ourselves and why we weren't as good as we've been over the past six weeks.
"But that's certainly one decision that when I looked at the TMO I didn't expect it to be given and I was quite surprised when it was."
Ospreys come up just short
Leinster crossed for two late tries to stretch their winning streak in the URC to a dozen games with a last-ditch 24-19 win against the Ospreys in Swansea.
The home side led for 63 minutes of the contest but full-back Hugo Keenan and wing Jimmy O'Brien crossed the whitewash to clinch a victory for the leaders.
A late Cai Evans penalty salvaged a bonus point for the Welsh team, who pushed the Dubliners all the way in this compelling clash.
Wing Keelan Giles had crossed for the game's first try but Leinster hit back with hooker Dan Sheehan just before the break.
The Ospreys produced a resolute defensive performance and dominated the scrum despite having to live off scraps of possession and losing the territory battle to Leinster.
The hosts had been on a impressive three-match unbeaten run but that ended with this defeat to a side many expect to be in contention for the title.
Connacht have too much bite for Sharks
Three first-half tries laid the foundations for Connacht's much-needed 24-12 BKT United Rugby Championship win over the Sharks at the Sportsground.
Young centre Cathal Forde crossed twice in a player-of-the-match performance, with Conor Oliver and Tiernan O'Halloran also claiming tries to give the hosts a 19-0 half-time lead.
Squad rotation saw the Sharks retain only three starters from their 47-20 victory over the Bulls, while their director of rugby Neil Powell stayed behind in Durban in order to prepare for the Heineken Champions Cup next week.
Read more:
Ospreys 19-24 Leinster: Welsh side fall agonisingly short in bid to topple league leaders
Cardiff 22-28 Scarlets: Dwayne Peel's men hold on for Welsh derby win in front of Warren Gatland
'Most attacking fly-half in northern hemisphere' ready for Wales recall
