Scarlets fail to stop the Saints marching on

By Helen ‘Helzbach’ Davies

A packed Franklins Gardens welcomed the Scarlets in typical Northampton fashion as they ran out into glorious sunshine for their quest to win their LV= Cup semi final against the Saints.

This was their first semi final for almost 6 seasons and it was hopeful that the men from West Wales could gain some sort of revenge for their home loss against Northampton in the Heineken Cup.

It started almost like a game of table tennis with plenty of kicking back and fo, but the Scarlets soon began attacking after stealing a Northampton line out. Unfortunately the ball went forward but this offered the visitors an early scrum, where they more than matched the forward power of the Saints.

With the Scarlets forwards on fire, and the travelling supporters in fine voice, it was the men in Scarlet that threatened to score first, with Lock Dominic Day, making his 100th appearance, powering over the line. Unfortunately, the four Northampton players that he took over the line with him made it almost impossible for him to ground the ball and the TMO was unable to award the try.

The resulting strong scrum saw the Scarlets once again inch ever closer to the whitewash before passing to the backs who unfortunately lost the ball and the opportunity was lost.

Throwing everything at their opponents, the Scarlets soon made their way up field once more with a scintillating run up field from Andy Fenby again almost resulting in a try, but unfortunately he was denied by a strong tackle from former Scarlet Martin Roberts.

Northampton created an attack of their own, in typical English style, with an effective rolling maul which saw them break into the Scarlets’ 22 for the first time and suddenly it was the Scarlets defence that was being put to the test.

The home team demonstrated their intention with a kick to the corner from the subsequent penalty, rather than taking the 3 points and it worked well for them with their prop Alex Waller the driving force at the front of the rolling maul that crossed for the first try of the match, very much against the run of play. Steve Myler’s conversion gave the home team 7 points to 0 lead after just over quarter of an hour play.

With added confidence and safe in the knowledge that the Scarlets had little answer to the powerful Northampton rolling maul, the home team once again used this tactic to power up field and Outside Half Stephen Myler took the opportunity to kick and increase the Saints lead to 10 points to 0.

Dan Newton suffered an injury following a late, dangerous tackle, but the referee must have been looking at his watch at the time!!

The Scarlets were finally offered the chance to put some points on the board soon after and Outside Half Stephen Jones had already turned away before his kick sailed through the posts to give a score line of 10 points to 3.

Good defensive work from the Scarlets saw the Northampton team attacking deep in their own half before Martin Roberts kicking out on the full gave the visitors a line out in a good attacking position.

Unfortunately, the throw in was not straight and it was scrum time once again, however the West Walians were no match for the effectiveness of the home team, but a great tackle from Emyr Phillips and Deacon Manu gave Stephen Jones another opportunity to get his team down deep into Northampton’s half.

Working through the phases, the Scarlets’ attack again saw the errors creep in with Josh Turnball spilling the ball forward and once again the visitors were back to defending.

Suddenly the Scarlets’ supporters, who had been in fine voice, were being drowned out by the usual ‘O When the Saints go Marching In’ as decisions seemed to go against the men in red, despite all the hard work they were putting in.

Ill-discipline from the Scarlets saw Myler maintain his 100% record as he struck the ball in the total silence of Franklins Gardens and increased his team’s lead to 10 points, 13 points to 3.

Seconds later though, Stephen Jones was offered the opportunity to cut the deficit once again and he also maintained his 100% kicking record to give a score line of 13 points to 6, with half time looming.

A good line out, won by Dom Day, saw the Scarlets launch a final attack of the half, which resulted in Stephen Jones’ pass being deemed forward by the referee, but this looked doubtful.

Strong scrummaging from Rhodri Jones made life difficult for the home team, but the half finished with the Northampton Saints ahead by 7 points.

Early in the second half saw Stephen Jones again kicking to increase the Scarlets’ score. The routine was exactly the same as the previous two attempts and so was the result, with Northampton’s lead being cut to 4 points, 13 points to 9.

The visitors demonstrated their confidence by attempting to run the ball from their own line, but it was soon the home team that were back on the attack with a typical, boring rolling maul. A great tackle from captain Gareth Maul saved the Scarlets temporarily but you just knew that there was going to be a try scored due to the speed in which they were recycling the ball. Scott Armstrong just managed to squeeze over in the corner before being bundled into touch.

Steve Myler was faced with his toughest kick of the afternoon and there was a huge communal Scarlets’ sigh of relief as the ball sailed just wide.

The Scarlets brought on fresh legs in an attempt to cut the now 9 point deficit as Armstrong’s try saw the home team take an 18 point to 9 lead.

Replacement Scrum Half Gareth Davies’ storming run up field finally gave the travelling support something to shout about, but with the supporting players a little slow in arriving to help out, it was left to Mr Reliable, Stephen Jones to add the extra points with his fourth successful kick of the afternoon. This saw the Scarlets 6 points behind – 18 points to 12.

It was just minutes later though that the other kicking Steve, Myler this time, once again put the Saints 2 scores ahead to bring the score line to 21 points to 12.

Despite attempting to play rugby, it seemed that penalty after penalty just kept going against the Scarlets and it wasn’t long before Myler again increased the lead to 12 points, 24 points to 12, which saw the Scarlets desperate for a try to attempt to get back into the game, even though this was looking increasingly unlikely, much to the delight of the majority of the 10,337 in attendance.

Once again the Scarlets’ failure to support ball carriers cost them as Liam Williams saw himself isolated as he attempted to inject some spark into the attack.

Finally, with almost 70 minutes on the clock, the Scarlets started playing in their usual style, with quick ball being passed slickly through the backs, but once things start going wrong, the run of the green always seems to go against you as the penalty count crept up in a very frustrating passage of play which seemed to silence the Scarlets faithful who had made their way up the M4 early that morning.

With Myler being replaced by Ryan Lamb, it
was a relief to see that he had left his kicking boots back in the changing room as yet another penalty decision went against the visitors.

Even when the Scarlets were awarded a penalty, things went wrong as Stephen Jones failed to find touch –a basic error and truly summed up the trend of the afternoon….so near, and yet so far.

The home team took full advantage of this with yet another rolling maul, surely their 100th of the afternoon which saw Dom Day yellow carded and Ryan Lamb offered another chance to kick a penalty.

This time, he saw his kick sail through the upright, his team take a 27 point to 12 lead and their final spot confirmed, bar a Scarlets miracle in the remaining 3 minutes.

Fighting till the end, the Scarlets continued giving their all to attempt to get a last gasp, consolation try that would finally give the supporters something to shout about.