Former favourite Andy Fenby made a try scoring return to Parc Y Scarlets before Harry Robinson, Adam Warren and Kyle Evans sealed their first victory in the Anglo-Welsh competition, though they will not advance to the semi-finals after Leicester Togers beat Northampton Saints to claim top-spot.
Theo Brophy-Clews scored a late consolation, but it was not enough for the Aviva Premiership side, who crash out of this season’s tournament. Steve Shingler fired the Scarlets into an early lead with just three minutes on the clock.
Rory Pitman bounced off a couple of defenders to put the Welsh side in Irish territory before Kieran Low failed to roll away at a ruck and Shingler converted the penalty from 40 metres. He made it 6-0 after 20 minutes with another penalty after he engineered a clean line-break with a clever loop move.
That kicked the Exiles into action and it was former Scarlet Fenby who came back to haunt his old side.
Centre Tom Fowley sliced through the red wall and found Fenby on a supporting line, and the man from North Wales crashed over.
Miles Dorrian added the extras and a penalty before the Scarlets suffered two yellow cards in a single minute.
Owens, in his first match for four months was first in the bin after puling down a close-range Irish maul and Shingler followed after a deliberate knock-on from the resulting scrum.
But Dorrian dismissed the chance to turn the screw up-front and kicked Irish to a 13-6 half-time lead.
The West Walians held out whilst down to 13 men and fought back for their first try after they were back to their full compliment.
It was their turn to put the pressure on up-front and it told when Robinson found the space in midfield to scuttle past Nic Rouse to score.
Wales’ forgotten scrum-half Williams showed Warren Gatland what he was missing after 60 minutes when he sniped and ran 30 metres before setting up Warren to give the Scarlest a 20-13 lead. A comedy of errors gifted the hosts a third eight minutes later. The ball spilled loose on the Irish line and when Tom Homer failed to hold the pickup, and replacement full-back Jones pounced to score.
There was time for Fenby to hurt his old side again when he turned provider for Brophy-Clews to give the Reading side hope, but it was not enough to rescue their LV=Cup campaign.
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