MAN MOUNTAIN NAIYARAVORO CRUSHES SCARLETS HOPES

By Helen ‘Helzbach’ Davies

With the Scarlets entering the festive period sitting pretty at the top of the table to claim the ‘Christmas Number 1’ spot, it was back to Champions’ Cup rugby for the Scarlets as they travelled to Glasgow for the first leg of their double header against the current Pro12 Champions, Glasgow.

Following the announcement yesterday that International Scott Williams had committed himself to the region until 2018, despite interest from arch-rivals the Ospreys, there is a feel-good factor surrounding the region at the moment.

Unfortunately, disappointing results in the first two rounds of this season’s campaign, the Scarlets had to get this important away win to maintain any hope of progressing to the knock-out stages.

It took a while for both sides to settle into the game as conditions under-foot were extremely soft, however it became evident that Glasgow seemed to have the upper-hand at both the set-piece and the breakdown. It took just over 6 minutes for the Scottish to get the first try of the afternoon, with Duncan Weir finding a gaping hole in the Scarlets’ defence. Converting his own try gave Glasgow a 7 point to 0 lead.

The Scarlets opened their scoring with a penalty from Steve Shingler to narrow the gap to 7 points to 3, however, Glasgow were soon back on the attack.

It was almost a dream second try for Glasgow with Steve Shingler’s awful pass to Gareth Davies intercepted on the line by Stuart Hogg, but it was sheer luck that he dropped the ball.

18 stone Wing, the man mountain Naiyaravoro thought he had kept the ball in touch and sliced through the Scarlets defence like they weren’t there. Resembling the late, great Jonah Lomu, as he side-stepped and charged through tacklers until he crossed the white-wash. On this occasion the visitors were fortunate of the use of the TMO who ruled that Naiyaravoro had a toe in touch resulting in the try being disallowed.

Weir maintained the 100% kicking record, with a penalty just at the end of the first half to see the hosts end the half with a 10 point to 3 advantage.

A much better start to the second half from the Scarlets saw the men in red working through the phases in the Glasgow 22. A well-struck penalty from Shingler saw the visitors rewarded for their efforts – 10 points to 6.

Unfortunately, just as the Scarlets started to look as though they were well and truly back in the game, a try from James Malcom, who scored under the posts, saw Glasgow back in control once more. Weir added the conversion as the home team extended their lead to 17 points to 6.

Things got worse for the men in red with Naiyaravoro finally crossing for his first try, again slicing through the Scarlets defence with ease, probably aided by the defenders concentrating their tackling efforts on his upper body rather than going low. The added conversion saw Glasgow comfortably ahead, 24 points to 6.

The Scarlets finally got over the Glasgow try line just as the game entered the hour stage, however the ball was held up and the forwards had a second chance until the ball was turned over.

Glasgow finally ensured it was game over as with Naiyaravoro gathering the cross kick to score his team’s fifth try of the afternoon to ensure they collect the full 5 points from the victory. The touch-line conversion extended the lead to 31 points to 6, before an error from the Scarlets saw Naiyaravoro run in for his hat trick to open up a 30 point gap – 36 points to 6.

Tim Swinson wrapped things up for the home team with a last gasp try for his team to give a final score of 43 points to 6.

Next weekend the Scarlets welcome Glasgow to Parc y Scarlets where they hope to welcome back some of the injured players and gain some sort of revenge over today’s opponents.