Dwayne Peel's Scarlets suffered a nine-try 57-12 rout in South Africa at the hands of the Bulls.
The tough Friday night outing in Pretoria was a one-sided win which saw hooker Johannes Grobbelaar and No. 8 Marcell Coetzee cross the whitewash twice apiece, with the Scarlets' Sione Kalamafoni and Rob Evans hitting back late on in each half.
First-half scores came from Canan Moodie, Coetzee, Cyle Brink, Grobbelaar and Elrigh Louw, before Kalamafoni hit back with a try converted by Rhys Patchell to make it 31-7 at the break. But Ruan Nortje, Grobbelaar, Coetzee and Rob Hunt added more after the interval, with Chris Smith nailing five conversions in total and Morne Steyn adding another. Scarlets' only score in the second half came from Wales international Evans, who barged over in the last move of his matchday comeback for the first time since damaging knee ligaments on New Year's Day.
Scarlets flanker Aaron Shingler left the field with a knee injury after 12 minutes, while the visitors were not helped when Ioan Nicholas was yellow carded for an aerial hit on Madosh Tambwe.
The result means the Scarlets have won just four games in 11 in what has been a strained campaign, with injuries, Wales call-ups and their South Africa Covid quarantine affair last year. Scarlets boss Peel had made eight changes, one of them positional, from the team which lost 37-20 to the Sharks a week ago. The Scarlets are currently missing 18 players — 11 injured, seven away with Wales.
The powerful and fast-paced hosts, who played their third game in seven days, climb to sixth in the United Rugby Championship table.
Vodacom Bulls: 15 Kurt-Lee Arendse; 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Cornal Hendricks, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Madosh Tambwe; 10 Chris Smith, 9 Zak Burger, 1 Gerhard Steenekamp, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 3 Jacques van Rooyen, 4 Walt Steenkamp, 5 Ruan Nortje, 6 Marcell Coetzee (capt), 7 Cyle Brink, 8 Elrigh Louw.
Replacements : 16 Joe van Zyl, 17 Simphiwe Matanzima, 18 Robert Hunt, 19 Reinhardt Ludwig, 20 Arno Botha, 21 Keagan Johannes, 22 Morne Steyn, 23 Lionel Mapoe.
Scarlets : 15 Ioan Nicholas; 14 Steff Evans, 13 Johnny Williams, 12 Scott Williams (capt), 11 Ryan Conbeer; 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Dane Blacker; 1 Kemsley Mathias, 2 Daf Hughes, 3 Javan Sebastian, 4 Sam Lousi, 5 Jac Price, 6 Aaron Singler, 7 Tomas Lezana, 8 Blade Thomson.
Replacements : 16 Shaun Evans, 17 Rob Evans, 18 Harri O’Connor, 19 Morgan Jones, 20 Sione Kalamafoni, 21 Archie Hughes, 22 Sam Costelow, 23 Joe Roberts.
