The Scarlets gave their supporters some pre-Christmas cheer on Saturday as their two-try defeat of the Cardiff Blues at Parc y Scarlets moved them up to fourth place in the Magners League.

The Scarlets’ first victory at their new home ground was a well-merited one as star kicker Stephen Jones steered them past their Welsh rivals.

The Wales fly-half kicked five penalties and a conversion, strengthening the home side’s advantage after scrum half Martin Roberts and prop Phil John had both chipped in with tries.

The win, only the Scarlets’ third in their last 11 matches, will boost their confidence ahead of their West Wales derby against the Ospreys on December 27.

Ahead of a busy festive period, Cardiff Blues coach Dai Young rested a number of his players including Welsh internationals Martyn Williams, Gethin Jenkins, Tom Shanklin and Andy Powell, while team captain Paul Tito and regular place-kicker Ben Blair missed out with the flu.

The Scarlets gave fitness tests to prop Iestyn Thomas, winger Darren Daniel and full-back Morgan Stoddart. None of the three made the matchday squad but Simon Maling was fit to start in the second row and youngsters Rhys Priestland and Jonathan Davies started at full-back and inside centre respectively.

The opening 30 minutes saw neither side able to find top form, although Leigh Halfpenny, who was making his second start at full-back for the Blues, looked lively in attack and rock solid in defence.

The Scarlets hit the front in the ninth minute when Jones’ pinpoint kick punished the Blues’ stand-in captain Robin Sowden Taylor for being offside at a ruck.

Three minutes later Cardiff were back on terms when Halfpenny split the posts from distance and while there was some aimless kicking in open play, both sides were also guilty of some poor place-kicking.

The Blues more so as between them, Halfpenny and Ceri Sweeney missed three penalty attempts in a nine-minute period.

Jones was also off target before his pack got back within range on 32 minutes and drew a penalty which their number 10 dispatched for 6-3.

The Scarlets, though, gave those three points back when hands in ruck, in the next phase of play, allowed Halfpenny square up the game again.

Nigel Davies’ men knuckled down and had their best spell just before half-time. They looked set to grab the game’s opening try when centre Regan King intercepted a stray pass from John Yapp and scooted into space – however Halfpenny had other ideas and he produced an excellent tackle to halt the attack.

The Scarlets roared back into the visitors’ 22, just a minute before the break. Full-back Priestland gained serious ground as he set off on the counter and with the Cardiff defence suddenly spreadeagled, number 9 Roberts backed himself from a close range ruck and made the line ahead of Tom James.

Jones missed the conversion but the Scarlets had renewed optimism for the second half as they headed into the dressing room with an 11-6 lead.

Their chances of posting a first win since October improved on the restart when Cardiff centre Jamie Robinson was sin-binned for killing the ball.

Nevertheless, Jones missed the resulting penalty and Halfpenny snuffed out what would have been a second Scarlets try when he caught up with the fast-breaking Roberts.

Halfpenny had to retire shortly afterwards with a knee injury and the Scarlets strengthened their grip on the game on 58 minutes when experienced loosehead John touched down after good pressure from the forwards.

Jones’ successful conversion made it 18-6 but Cardiff made a real fight of it when winger Richard Mustoe evaded two tackles to score a try, although there were shouts for a forward pass.

Sweeney added the extras to reduce the arrears to five points, only for his opposite number Jones to stamp his authority on the game in the closing 15 minutes.

He kicked a hat-trick of penalties during that time, with a terrific 50-metre effort on 74 minutes taking a losing bonus point away from the Blues.

Jones’ final kick came in injury-time, sealing a very important win for his side after their recent struggles in Europe against Ulster.

Speaking afterwards, Scarlets boss Davies said: "I was very, very pleased with the way our players went about their business. I thought it was a very professional performance under obviously difficult circumstances.

"There was a lot of pressure on this team to perform and get a result tonight and we did it."

Conceding that his team had been second best, Blues coach Young said: "I thought the Scarlets controlled the game. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit, I thought they totally controlled the field position.

"We never had any possession in an area where we could mount any attack so basically for most of that game we defended, which was disappointing really."