Dominant Scarlets Slay the Dragons with Seven Try Romp

Following a successful festive period where the Scarlets completed the double over both the Ospreys and the Blues, the target for this season is to complete a clean sweep over all the Welsh Regions. The last two fixtures have been close affairs, the performances haven’t been great, but the Champions proved they have the mental attitude to win games that would probably have been lost in the past as they continued with their strong league campaign thus far.
Three matches in ten days has seen Head Coach, Wayne Pivac rotate his squad for each game offering fringe players a chance for some game time as they prepare to step in during the Six Nations. Several injuries particularly in the back line, along with Steff Evans’ suspension has seen Rhys Patchell selected at Full Back for this fixture. However, the big news this week has been the most welcome return of Prop, Samson Lee, playing his first game since he faced Bath back in October.
John Barclay marked the end of an important week personally, as his wife give birth to his third child – a baby boy, by making his 100th appearance for the Scarlets and was given the traditional honour of leading the Scarlets out.
It was the home team that were offered the first opportunity to open the scoring however Tom Prydie was unable to gather Dan Jones’ cross kick that would surely have seen him score an early try against his former teammates.
Despite the Scarlets’ dominance from the start, it was the Dragons that got the first points of the evening as Outside Half Arwel Robson landed a superb long-range effort to give the visitors a 0 point to 3 lead.
A line-out deep in the Dragons’ 22 offered the Scarlets the perfect attacking opportunity as the forwards drove towards the line with James ‘Cubby Boi’ Davies crossing in the corner. Dan Jones’ superb kick from the touchline added the extras to give the Scarlets the lead by 7 points to 3.
With the Dragons’ scrum and line-out causing them all sorts of problems, Head Coach, Bernard Jackman took the decision to change both Props after just 25 minutes on the pitch as the dominance of the all-international Scarlets front row – Rob Evans, Ken Owens and Samson Lee proved too powerful for the Dragons to handle.
A clever grubber kick from Centre, Steff Hughes saw Wing Prydie gather to cross for his first Scarlets try on home turf, making it two tries in two weeks. Jones missed the conversion as the men in Scarlet extended their lead to 12 points to 3.
A superb side-step from none other than Captain Ken Owens left the Dragons’ defence wide open before he off-loaded to James Davies as Dan Jones finished off the move for try number three, scoring under the posts before converting his own try to give the Scarlets a 19 points to 3 lead.
The Dragons were able to secure a score just before half time, with Full Back, Carl Meyer successful with his first penalty attempt to give a half time score of 19 points to 6 in favour of the home side in what had been a pretty one-sided affair.
With the Scarlets beginning their quest for a fourth bonus point try as the second half got under way, it was the Dragons who were offered the first scoring opportunity, however, Meyer was short with his long-range attempt.
Scrum Half, Aled Davies claimed the Scarlets’ fourth try of the evening, and importantly secured a try bonus point for the home team. A break from Patchell saw Davies scamper over under the posts, making the conversion attempt an easy one for Jones as the Scarlets again increased their lead to 26 points to 6.
Just three minutes later and try number five was in the bag. Superb handling from Steff Hughes, Dan Jones and Aaron Shingler saw the latter cross the whitewash. Jones again added the extras as the dominant hosts extended their lead to 33 points to 6 and offered Pivac the opportunity to substitute several key players in preparation for next week’s important European Fixture against Bath.
The sixth try was almost an exact replica of the first one, just in opposite corners as the effective drive from the line-out saw Will Boyde claim the try. Patchell added the conversion to take the Scarlets up to 40 points to 6, but they weren’t finished yet to the delight of the majority of the 9, 347 crowd.
Replacement Rhys Jones, son of former Dragons’ Coach, Kingsley Jones, crowned his return from injury by finishing off another move that was started by Rhys Patchell. Patchell’s conversion brought the score-line to 47 points to 6 in a match that offered little from the visitors and really served as nothing more as a training run for the Champions.
The Dragons were able to grab a consolation try with replacement Scrum Half Sarel Pretorius crossing the white wash for the visitors, though the actual grounding of the ball looked dubious, however Referee Mitrea awarded the try. Angus O’Brien added the conversion….47 points to 13.
With just minutes of the game remaining, the Scarlets retained possession in a game in which the Dragons really offered very little and the Scarlets faithful were thankful that another tense ending had been well and truly avoided.
This victory sees the Scarlets maintain their position at the top of Conference B and record a 17th successive home league victory, equally the record set by the Cardiff Blues way back in the 2006-7 season.
Speaking after the match, Wayne Pivac revealed that despite 13 points out of a possible 15 during the Festive Derbies, there will need to be an improvement in performance with two big European challenges next up for the Scarlets.
“We got three results, but we didn’t play well,” he admitted. “We haven’t played our prettiest rugby but at this time of the year you’re not winning championships, its about accumulating enough points to make sure that you’re in the play-offs at the end of the year.”
Next week’s fixture against Bath and the subsequent home fixture against Toulon are both must-win games if the Scarlets are to keep their European dreams alive. For the past 3 weeks, the Bath fixture has been in the background, but now becomes the main focus as Pivac also revealed that the heavy work-load over Christmas has meant that squad have done very little training, as there’s been so much ‘playing!’ However, with a full training week ahead, he is confident that the squad go in to the Bath fixture next Friday evening, fully prepared.