Morgan Stoddart dives over for his second try against the Barbarians

The Scarlets marked in style the official opening of new ground Parc y Scarlets, beating invitation side the Barbarians by six-tries-to-four.

The hosts' Wales stars may have been absent and there were no global superstars in the visitors line-up.

But the hosts made up for the lack of household names by playing some glittering attacking rugby.

Full-back Morgan Stoddart's second try was the game's pick while Ben Blair starred for the Barbarians.

Pre-match entertainment included a contribution from Welsh folk singer Dafydd Iwan and the ground's official opening was conducted by Wales' first minister Rhodri Morgan.

After that responsibility for the day's success fell to the players and they did everything in their power to ensure the near capacity crowd were suitably entertained.

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The visitors found difficulty in producing any tempo or cohesion, but Nigel Davies' side had few such problems despite the absence of Wales squad members Stephen Jones, Mark Jones, Matthew Rees and Dafydd Jones.

Stoddart was the game's outstanding attacking talent, showing his Test-class ability on numerous occasions, but also displaying the defensive frailties that have prevented him from making a case to be included in Wales coach Warren Gatland's plans.

Scrum-half Martin Roberts, centres Gavin Evans and Jonathan Davies also made their mark as the young blood the Scarlets are pinning future hopes on were given chances to impress.

Newport Gwent Dragons veteran back-row star Colin Charvis was prominent after his second-half introduction while former Wales prop Ben Evans carried effectively. But

Wing Matthew Jacobs raced on to Davies' well-placed punt to outpace Brian Carney to open the scoring after three minutes and before the opening quarter was up, centre Davies and Stoddart also crossed the line.

Carney claimed a measure of revenge after contributions from Cardiff Blues Maama Molitika and Jamie Robinson only for Man-of-the-Match Stoddart to counter-attack in style from deep inside his own territory before racing clear.

That gave the Scarlets a 26-5 half-time lead to which Roberts (48 minutes) and Evans (69) added touchdowns before the visitors fought back through Blair, Jeremy Staunton and Tomas de Vedia.

After the match, Welsh first minister Morgan presented Scarlets captain Simon Easterby with the Carwyn James Memorial Trophy to mark the Scarlets' triumph.

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