Still room for improvement on performance says Easterby

Scarlets secured a six try, bonus point win, away from home against Benetton Treviso this weekend as the RaboDirect PRO12 returned to action.

Simon Easterby’s side headed to Italy knowing that a win was a necessity to get their league campaign back on track and to move up the table and ever closer to the play-offs.

Two first half tries put the Scarlets in relative comfort going into half time and despite scoring four tries in the second half Treviso did not allow the visitors to run away with the game, coming back within one point just minutes from time.

Scarlets Head Coach Simon Easterby said: “We always make it interesting when we come here; last year we got ourselves into a good position and lost the game.

“Today we held on and took the win. We scored some good tries and came away with a bonus point win. The disappointing thing is we probably lost control again for a little while in the second half and gave them an opportunity to pressurise us.”

The Scarlets dominated possession and territory in the first half scoring two tries and despite four tries, and a bonus point in the second half, Treviso brought the game to the Scarlets making them work for the victory.

Easterby continued saying: “We can always improve on the performance. Coming here hasn’t always been happy hunting ground for us but we came here today, created lots of good opportunities and got what we deserved.

“We were the better side but we allowed them back into the game but we got the result.”

Scarlets travel to Northern Ireland next weekend to take on Ulster and the result away from home against Treviso will go a long way to building confidence and belief within the squad, Easterby went on to say: “Any win away from home is good. We have a lot of players absent at the moment but the guys really stood up here today. They played well and that’s all we can ask of these guys at the moment is to keep climbing the table, keep putting the pressure on sides around us and try and move upwards.

“Getting five points here is exactly what we needed. We haven’t played in the PRO12 since Ospreys at New Year so it’s good to get the result and we’ll hopefully keep chipping away at the table from here on in.”