Cub Intercepts to Seal Victory

By Helen ‘Helzbach’ Davies

Following a disappointing defeat last weekend out in Ireland that put a serious dent in the Scarlets’ European hopes for this season, the Scarlets welcomed Ulster to Parc y Scarlets for the return of this back-to-back fixture.

An unusual Sunday evening kick off time, coupled with cold drizzly conditions resulted in the faithful really demonstrating their love of the team when they could have been cwtched up in front of the fire!

Both teams ran out to an abundance of smoke which made visibility difficult for the spectators at the beginning of the game, but once the mist cleared it was obvious that Ulster intended to continue from last week’s winning performance.

However, the Scarlets took full advantage of their first visit into Ulster’s half by winning a free kick from the scrum and gaining valuable yards towards the 22, though they were unable to put any points on the board on this occasion.

Rhys Priestland was offered the first chance to put points on the board following Ulster being penalised at the breakdown. Fortunately he was accurate with his attempt and gave his side a 3 point to 0 lead with less than quarter of hour gone of the match.

A break by Captain Scott Williams ignited the game following a period played mainly around the half way line. Despite linking with his Centre partner Regan King, the home team had had to rely on Priestland again to put the points on the board as he kicked his second penalty of the game to increase the lead to 6 points to 0.

The Scarlets again took full advantage of their field position as they gained the hard yards towards the try line, however, that last pass continued to let them down. Fortunately, Priestland wasn’t letting his team down and maintained his 100% record to give the home team a 9 point to 0 advantage.

With growing confidence, Priestland attempted penalty number 4 a matter of minutes later, this time from just inside the Ulster half. His monumental effort sailed over the posts to further increase the Scarlets’ lead to 12 points to 0.

Unfortunately the Outside Half’s impressive kicking display was halted minutes later as he didn’t quite have the distance to score his fifth successive penalty, despite being bang on target with his accuracy.

He was soon offered the opportunity to have a second attempt, almost from exactly the same field position and again the result was similar – perfect accuracy but not quite the distance. However, the Scarlets did run in for the interval with a 12 points to 0 half time advantage.

Ulster began the second half in the best way possible by scoring a try right from the restart. Centre Darren Cave shook off the tacklers to ground the ball right under the posts, making the conversion for Ian Humphreys a matter of course. This score significantly cut the deficit to 12 points to 7.

Unfortunately Rhys Priestland was unable to further extend the Scarlets lead a few minutes later with his relatively easy attempt sailing to the left of the posts.

An extended period of advantage saw Ulster offered the opportunity for their second try with referee JP Doyle being very instrumental in them gaining a strong field position along with yet more advantage. Despite this, Ulster were unable to capitalise and the Scarlets were able to sustain the pressure and clear their lines, though they immediately made a complete shambles of the lineout to once again offer Ulster the advantage.

Seemingly, the curse of the kickers shifted to the Ulster side momentarily as Ian Humphreys was unable to bridge the gap with an easy penalty attempt.

Despite a strong first half performance from the referee who let play flow, the second half was seemingly becoming a different story as Scarlets defensive strength was continually knocked with hugely extended periods of advantage being played.

Great hands from the home team together with the vision of Scott Williams finding the gaping gaps in the Ulster defence saw the home team back in the opposition half with the hope of putting some second half points on the board.

Rhys Priestland finally put his temporary kicking ghosts to rest as he kicked his fifth successful penalty of the game to give the Scarlets their first points of the half and extend his and this team’s tally to 15 points to 7.

With Ulster down to 14 men as Prop Declan Fitzpatrick was sin binned for continually infringing at the scrum, the Scarlets were offered a chance to use their man advantage to further increase their lead.

There was a special Parc y Scarlets welcome for replacement HadleighParkes who signed for the region last week. The 27 year New Zealander was making his debut for the club.

Unfortunately it seemed that Ulster were unaffected by being a man down as RuanPienaar who has broken many a Scarlet heart in the past narrowed the gap to just five points with a well struck penalty to give a score line of 15 points to 10 and he repeated the feat minutes later to narrow the gap even further to just 2 points – 15 points to 13, with possibly more to come.

With just 5 minutes on the clock, Pienaar was offered the chance to give Ulster the lead for the first time in the match with his third penalty in quick succession but a communal sigh of relief was breathed by the home supporters as his kick sailed just to the right of the posts.

The Scarlets didn’t find themselves back in the Ulster half as the minutes ticked away and just as the supporters prepared themselves for a nail biting finish, James ‘Cubby’ Davies intercepted to score unopposed under the posts. Priestland added the conversion to give the Scarlets a 22 point to 13 winning margin as they continued their winning ways in Parc y Scarlets in 2014 and kept their slim European hopes alive.