Wayne Pivac’s Scarlets scored two tries when reduced to just 14 men to claim their second win in a week on their travels to Benetton Treviso, 22-6.

Pivac had urged his side to build momentum after last week’s first win of the season against Connacht – and they duly delivered in an encounter that never really sparkled to life.

Treviso haven’t won consecutive matches in the Guinness PRO12 since February and the stats were both for and against them before kick-off.

They had won their last three home games against the Welsh regions, beating Newport Gwent Dragons just last week, while the Scarlets had lost their last three away games.

On the flip, Pivac’s side had won the last six matches in their head-to-head statistics and were looking for a sixth straight win on their travels to Italy.

The early exchanges were pretty cagey as Scarlets, for whom Scott Williams was playing his 100th game, tried their best to give their small rump of travelling supporters something to sing about while Samson Lee made an encouraging return to action in his first game since injury during Wales’ summer tour of New Zealand.

But both sides conceded penalties as things got scrappy before, while Scarlets will blame some flaky handling for not breaking the deadlock early on.

The game was 33 minutes old before Italian international Tommaso Allan slotted over a penalty, after the home side outmuscled Scarlets at the scrum and forced them to commit a foul.

Rhys Patchell levelled the scores shortly after the break from the tee but within three minutes Allan pushed the hosts back ahead.

Second row David Bulbring saw yellow as Scarlets went down to 14 but six minutes later, despite their numerical disadvantage, replacement prop Werner Kruger crossed the line and Patchell added the extras.

That try swung momentum firmly towards the hosts, underlined when Treviso replacement Ian McKinley hit the upright after Scarlets had again been penalised in the scrum.

Ten minutes from time Scarlets edged further ahead, DTH van der Merwe touching down before try-scorer Kruger was yellow carded with just three minutes to go, Treviso sending the resulting penalty wide.

But 14 v 15 only seemed to inspire the visitors and with the clock showing 80 minutes, fleet-footed Steff Evans intercepted a loose ball and surged clear from flailing Treviso tackles to score.

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