Scarlets booked a spot in the PRO14 Final after they outclassed Glasgow Warriors in their 28-13 semi-final victory at Scotstoun on Friday.
Tries from Rhys Patchell, Gareth Davies, Rob Evans and Ken Owens saw them to the win, with Patchell converting all four of those scores.
While Glasgow did rally late on, they left themselves too much to do as their scores from Jonny Gray and Nick Grigg proved insufficient.
Scarlets now wait to see whether it will be Leinster or Munster who they will meet in the final, with the Irish duo facing off on Saturday.
They enjoyed a dream first-half and went in 21-3 ahead thanks to three converted tries, leaving the Warriors with a mountain to climb.
The Welsh outfit showed their intent early when a scrum penalty was chipped into the corner and from that set-piece a carry from Gareth Davies was followed up by Patchell, who slipped centre Grigg en route to the whitewash. The fly-half slotted the simple two with four minutes gone.
Patchell’s boot then did the talking as he put Scarlets in the right areas. However, losing John Barclay to injury was a blow to his side.
Glasgow, who lost Stuart Hogg before kick-off, did get on the board on 13 minutes after a Scarlets offside, Finn Russell adding a penalty.
However, back came the visitors as Scott Williams’ strong carry on halfway led to Gareth Davies being fed and he finished well for 14-3.
That became 21-3 on 33 minutes as slick interplay involving Jonny McNicholl, Steff Evans and Gareth Davies resulted in loosehead prop Evans crossing. Patchell made it 21-3 and despite a late surge from the Warriors that was how it remained for a healthy lead for Wayne Pivac’s outfit.
Things got worse early in the second stanza when Grigg was sin-binned for kicking the ball out of a Scarlets’ hand at a ruck. From the resulting line-out, the visitors crashed over via hooker Owens and following Patchell’s successful conversion, the cushion was now 25 points at 28-3.
The margin was cut on 61 minutes when Gray powered over from a quick tap, but Russell’s missed extras meant they were still 20 down.
That did spark both the Warriors players and supporters to life and Gray thought he had a second score on 68 minutes when he leapt on a ball which appeared to be on Scarlets’ try-line, thus meaning there was no offside. However, the officials thought otherwise and Scarlets had a reprieve.
Grigg’s score with seven minutes remaining made it 28-13, but replacement Peter Horne’s missed conversion meant the gap was over two scores, which was simply too great for Glasgow as time ran out on both the game and their season, with the classy Scarlets now moving on to Dublin.
The scorers:
For Glasgow:
Tries: Gray, Grigg
Pen: Russell
Yellow Card: Grigg
For Scarlets:
Tries: Patchell, G Davies, R Evans, Owens
Cons: Patchell 4
Glasgow: 15 Ruaridh Jackson, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Nick Grigg, 12 Sam Johnson, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 George Horne, 8 Ryan Wilson (c), 7 Callum Gibbins, 6 Matt Fagerson, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Fraser Brown, 1 Jamie Bhatti
Replacements: 16 George Turner, 17 Alex Allan, 18 Siua Halanukonuka, 19 Rob Harley, 20 Chris Fusaro, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Peter Horne, 23 Lee Jones
Scarlets: 15 Johnny McNicholl, 14 Tom Prydie, 13 Scott Williams, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Steff Evans, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 John Barclay 7 James Davies, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Steve Cummins, 4 Tadhg Beirne, 3 Samson Lee, 2 Ken Owens (c), 1 Rob Evans
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Lewis Rawlins, 20 Will Boyde, 21 Jonathan Evans, 22 Dan Jones, 23 Steff Hughes
Date: Friday, May 18
Venue: Scotstoun
Kick-off: 19:45 BST (18:45 GMT)
Referee: John Lacey (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Andrew Brace (Ireland), Frank Murphy (Ireland)
TMO: Ollie Hodges (Ireland)
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