Referee Nigel Owens deemed the pitch unsafe

A sell-out crowd of 10,800 had packed Llanelli's Stradey Park, some having travelled from the furthest reaches of the Scarlets region in north Wales.

But they were told after the scheduled kick-off time that a frozen pitch made it unsafe to start the local derby.

"It's a great shame to have let it go as long as it did, the decision should have been much earlier," said Hall.

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"It's bad management, the Scarlets should have looked under the covers at one o'clock [1300 GMT, ahead of the scheduled 1430 GMT kick off] and made the announcement to save people travelling."

There was a split between the two sides, with the Scarlets wanting to play and the injury-ravaged Ospreys reluctant.

"It's a local derby, a great occasion and a massive turnout," said Ospreys wing Shane Williams, who had been due to turn out as an emergency scrum-half.

The field was covered all night and morning and we couldn't have done any more Scarlets coach Gareth Jenkins

"I would have loved to have played, but you have to think of safety and while 80% of the pitch was perfect the parts in shadow were hard and dangerous."

Ospreys coach Lyn Jones was more vehement, saying: "It was totally unsafe and I just don't understand why we were called down here [to Llanelli]."

Scarlets director of rugby Gareth Jenkins was not so sure.

"I thought maybe the game could have gone on, but there were safety implications," Jenkins told BBC Sport Wales.

"It would have suited us to play, we were ready, there was a great crowd and we were very excited.

The players' safety is paramount and I have no doubt that there were unsafe patches Referee Nigel Owens

"The field was covered all night and morning and we couldn't have done any more, but when we took the covers off at the last minute the referee decided there were unplayable patches."

The difficult decision was left to match official Nigel Owens, but he was confident he had taken the right option.

"It was a simple choice, the players' safety is paramount and I have no doubt that there were unsafe patches," said Owens.

"It would have been foolish to start, and even if we did we would have been unlikely to finish. It's just unfortunate for all the fans."