Scarlets delivered a triumphant bonus-point victory to kickstart the Dwayne Peel URC era at Parc y Scarlets, seeing off a physical Emirates Lions side 36-13.

A stunning late score by wing Steff Evans capped an impressive display, much to the delight of a vocal crowd of 7,824.

Wales wing Tom Rogers had earlier bagged a brace, while prop Rob Evans opened the scoring within five minutes.

Fly-half Sam Costelow delivered an assured performance with a 16-point haul, while the outstanding Sione Kalamafoni picked up the man-of-the-match award with a display packed with power and aggression.

Before kick-off, Scarlets paid tribute to the 22 players who had sadly lost their lives during the Covid pandemic, as well as other fondly-remembered members of the Scarlets family.

The home team flew out of the blocks, putting pressure on the Lions in the back field. After earning themselves a close-range scrum, the forwards went through a number of phases before loose-head prop Evans powered over from close range.

Costelow converted, then opposite number Jordan Hendrikse pulled three points back for the visitors with a long-range penalty.

However, it wasn’t long before the Scarlets were celebrating their second of the night.

A line-out rumble was pulled down illegally, but when the ball was spun wide, Rogers was put in space and the winger flew in at the corner.

Costelow nailed the touchline conversion and despite the Scarlets having chances to score a third try before the break, the fly-half extended the lead with two further penalties to one from Hendrikse to make it 20-6 at the break.

Scarlets had to be at their defensive best in the third quarter as the South Africans threw everything at the hosts.

Eventually the dam burst when Ruben Schoeman burrowed over with Hendrikse’s conversion reducing the lead to 20-13.

However, the Scarlets responded strongly.

The impressive Costelow landed two further penalties,  then a brilliant counter-attack from deep, sparked by replacement Dan Jones, saw Scott Williams, Ioan Nicholas - on his 50th appearance - and Jon Davies combine to put Rogers over for his second.

With the home crowd in fine voice, the Scarlets pressed for the bonus-point score, which was delivered in style by Evans, who sliced through midfield and then turned on the afterburners to cross in the dying seconds.