SCARLETS SECURE LOSING BONUS POINT IN GUSTY GALWAY

 

 By Helen ‘Helzbach’ Davies

 

Following a tough few weeks for the Scarlets, things didn’t get any easier as the West Walians clocked up their fifth loss in row, despite seeing 2 new names being added to the International Honours Board as Rhys Priestland and Josh Turnbull made their debuts in the Welsh jersey just hours before this match kicked off.

 

They were in good company though; as a total of 8 Scarlets took part in Wales’ win in Murrayfield against Scotland.

With the Magners League returning, it was a trip to Galway to face a Connacht team that had only just missed out on victory in the Parc y Scarlets fixture at the beginning of the season.

Yet again this week, the Scarlets were almost blown out of the changing rooms onto the pitch, as the gusts of wind played a huge part in the drama of the first half.

Heavy rain added to the wind that was against the men in Scarlet for the opening 40, making handling difficult, but the Scarlets forwards kept the ball tight and held on to possession.

Unfortunately, despite all the hard work, most of the play was in the Scarlets’ half, with no real attack despite the number of phases that the visitors managed to string together.

Connacht were offered the first chance at getting points on the board following a penalty, but Ian Keatley saw his kick sail wide of the posts.

However, it was the home team that opened the scoring after quarter of an hour, with Scrum Half Frank Murphy completing a move that he had started following a scrum. Unusually, he was able to dummy past The King, Regan, to score in the corner.

Keatley missed the conversion to give a scoreline of 5 points to 0.

It wasn’t long before Dan Newton got the Scarlets on the scoreboard with his successful kick, in front of the posts after Mike Murphy was penalised in the breakdown.

This brought the score to 5 points to 3.

With the rain continuing to fall, the ball was kept among the forwards, with both sets putting in powerful, energy-zapping efforts as this was not a day for the usual flair and creativity that the Scarlets are renowned for, as the elements continued to control affairs.

Unfortunately for the men in Scarlet, the home team were able to extend their lead well into first half injury time as Outside Half Keatley was once again successful with his penalty attempt,

This gave the Irish men a half time lead of 8 points to 3.

It was a rejuvenated Scarlets team once again that ran out for the second half of the game, just like in previous weeks. Mercurial Regan King took less than a minute to demonstrate those skills that will be so sadly missed next season as he broke through a tackle and pass out to Wing Gareth Maule who crossed the whitewash to finally score a try for the visitors.

Dan Newton’s successful conversion kick gave the Scarlets the lead for the first time, 10 points to 8.

Yet again it seemed that baffling decisions from referee Andrew McMenemy proved to be the Scarlets’ downfall, particularly during the breakdown.

The Scarlets defensive line was well tested during the second half and despite the excellent start for the men in red it was the home team that added to the scoring following Keatley’s successful penalty brining the score to 11 points to 10, regaining the lead once again for Connacht.

Despite missing another attempt, Keatley added a third penalty soon after to give the Irish team a 14 points to 10 advantage. Typically, the wind died down significantly in the second half, giving the Scarlets far less of an advantage than the Connacht team had enjoyed in the first half.

The regaining of the lead seemed to inspire the home team as they put the Scarlets defence under intense pressure, spending 15 minutes deep in the Scarlets’ half, inching ever closer to the Scarlets’ try line.

It is a huge credit to the West Walians that they were able to come away from that passage of play without conceding a try, however, it did see them down to 14 men following Centre Scott Williams’ sin binning for being offside at a Connacht ruck.

The mammoth effort continued for the resulting 10 minutes as the proud Scarlets managed to ensure that Connacht did not take advantage of their man advantage to score any points, even though they did come close to scoring, but Michael Swift was unable to gather a pass to score an almost certain try.

With just 5 minutes remaining of the game, Keatley was successful with his fourth penalty of the evening to bring the score to 17 points to 10.

However, young Dan Newton ensured the Scarlets came away from Ireland with something to show for their efforts just 2 minutes later, as his penalty saw the region secure a losing bonus point with a full time scoreline of 17 points to 13.

This bonus point could become all-important at the end of the season when play-off time arrives.

Head Coach Nigel Davies praised the effort of the team at the end of the match in what had been a very tough and physical encounter and yet again he felt that decisions had gone against us (as always!!).

Next Friday night, the Scarlets are back home in Parc y Scarlets for the first of two home games that will hopefully end the losing streak and also help the Scarlets jump up the table where they currently lie in fourth place.

The proud Welsh Region are showing their support for the Farmers Union of Wales with a special farming night!

Among
the attractions will be a pre-match parading of a prize winning Welsh Black Bull, offering supporters memories of legendary Ray Gravell leading a similar bull around the hallowed turf of Stradey Park.

A very high placed source has also mentioned the presence of ducks, but this has not been confirmed!!!!

Kick off is 7.05pm.