YELLOW CARDS AGAIN PROVE COSTLY FOR SCARLETS

By Helen ‘Helzbach’ Davies

With the Dragons doing the Scarlets a huge favour by defeating Leinster, the Welsh region could extend their lead at the top of the Pro12 if they defeat Connacht in the return fixture.

Playing in the unusual yellow to orange to red coloured away jersey, the Scarlets were buoyed with the news that Liam ‘Sanjay’ Williams would be making his first appearance since May of last year.

Connacht, particularly the forwards made a strong start, destroying the Scarlets scrum resulting in an early penalty attempt for Outside Half Jack Carty. As silence descended on the Sportsground, his attempt hit the posts, but again the home team’s forwards tested the Scarlets’ set piece and defense, resulting in a second bite of the cherry for Carty. On this occasion he was successful to give Connacht a 3 point to 0 lead.

A strong run from Captain Hadleigh Parkes saw him break through mid-field before passing to Liam Williams who was brought down inches from the line resulting in a scrum.

Taking full advantage of their wind advantage, Connacht gained a strong attacking line-out which saw the Scarlets forwards unable to defend against the rolling maul that saw Jake Heenan cross in the corner for the first try of the afternoon. Carty hit the upright with his tricky penalty attempt as Connacht’s lead was extended to 8 points to 0.

Despite a testing time for the forwards, the Scarlets backline looked dangerous with Parkes and Williams involved once more. Connacht were possibly fortunate to get away with just a knock-on as referee Ben Whitehouse seems confused with regards to the deliberate knock-on rule, particularly after the game against the Blues on New Year’s Day.

With the Scarlets’ scrum absolutely destroyed by the dominant home team, astonishingly losing 5 on their own ball, Connacht opted for another catch and drive with the result identical to the previous attempt as Heenan claimed his second try of the day. Carty again missed the conversion, but with half time approaching, Connacht extended their lead to 13 points to 0.

This remained the score at half time, with the visitors pinning their hopes on being able to take full advantage of the wind in the second half.

The Scarlets were finally able to open their scoring at the start of the second half with Aled Thomas slotting over an easy penalty attempt to give a score line of 13 points to 3.

The come-back continued seconds later by taking full advantage of a missed tackle. Hooker Ryan Elias broke through from the breakdown and was well supported before DTH found himself scoring his sixth try for the region. Aled Thomas added the conversion to bring the visitors back in the game – 13 points to 10,

However, despite their strong start to the second half, the Scarlets were unable to build on this as an error from Thomas at the restart saw the scrum penalties creep back into the game as Phil John was sin-binned. Carty added another penalty to give his side a 16 point to 10 lead as the penalty count against the Scarlets increased further. Discipline has been a problem this season and it seems getting worse as Tom Price joined John in the sin bin leaving the Scarlets with 13 men.

Connacht opted once more for the same ‘catch and drive’ tactic that saw the scoring of their tries in the first half, this time with Prop Denis Buckley driving over the white wash. Carty further punished the visitors by adding the conversion to restore the half time lead of 13 points – 23 points to 10.

Replacement Rodney Ah You’s try secured the bonus point with his try that brought the score line to 30 points to 10 with Carty adding the extras to make the Scarlets task an almost impossible one.

Unbelievably a blatant deliberate knock-on that could have possibly prevented a certain Scarlets try resulted in Whitehouse deciding it was just a knock-on and nothing more than a scrum was awarded.

The visitors attempted a catch and drive of their own, but the Connacht forwards proved too strong, however passing the ball wide worked for the Scarlets as Gareth Owens crossed in the corner. Aled Thomas added the conversion to narrow the gap to 30 points to 17.

With the game in injury time, the Scarlets were offered a last gasp chance to gain something from this match as Connacht finish the game with 14 men. Keeping possession, the team finally demonstrated some heart as they attempted to gain a losing bonus point, however, the home team held on to end the game with a final score of 30 points to 17, and more importantly, with a maximum of 5 points in the bag, join the Scarlets at the top of the table on 40 points. The Scarlets, with an extra win, remain at the top with only Edinburgh in a position to topple them following their evening fixture away against the Cardiff Blues.

Next weekend sees the opening round of this season’s Six Nations tournament with Wales travelling to Ireland to face the current Champions next Sunday resulting in a break from domestic rugby. The Scarlets’ next fixture is against Edinburgh on Friday, 12th February 2016, kick off – 8.15pm