NARROW DEFEAT FOR SCARLETS DESPITE MOTM RETURN FOR CUBBY

Following two victories with just a single point winning margin, the Scarlets once again took to the road for this week’s Pro12 encounter in Murrayfield against Edinburgh. With the Scarlets currently sitting in third place in the table, a victory would see them edge closer to current leaders Connacht, who secured a convincing win over the Ospreys to increase their lead at the top. However, the main talking point pre-match was the return of James ‘Cubby’ Davies following a foot injury.

Edinburgh opened the scoring with a penalty from promising Full Back Blair Kinghorn to give the home team a 3 point to 0 lead.  This was almost immediately cancelled out from the boot of Aled Thomas who brought the scores level at 3 points all.

With the home team deep in the Scarlets’ 22, Outside Half Phil Burleigh found a gaping gap in the Scarlets defence to score the first try of the afternoon. Kinghorn added the conversion to give Edinburgh a 10 point to 3 advantage.

Fortunately, the Scarlets were offered the chance to strike back immediately as Aled Thomas added a second penalty to narrow the gap to 10 points to 6.

A loose pass saw Captain Hadleigh Parkes break through to score the Scarlets’ first try of the afternoon to give his team the lead for the first time. Amazingly, Thomas managed to miss the conversion from right in front of the posts, but the Scarlets took the lead by a point 10 points to 11.

Kinghorn added his third successful kick to give Edinburgh the lead once more 13 points to 11 before the Scarlets finally put some phases together. Aled Thomas missed another kickable penalty that would have re-gained the lead once more, however again the ball sailed to the left of the posts.

Looking very dangerous in attack, a flat pass in midfield from Regan King put James Davies into space. Cubby demonstrated that he has lost nothing of his previous form following his injury as he powered over in the corner. Aled Thomas’ conversion attempt hit the upright, however the Scarlets were in the lead once more, 13 points to 16.

With half time looming, the Scarlets back line demonstrated their effectiveness, with the mercurial hands of King featuring once more as DTH’s late replacement Steff Evans crossed for the Scarlets’ third try of the afternoon. From an almost identical position as his last attempt, Thomas added the conversion to increase the Scarlets’ lead to 13 points to 23.

Edinburgh did manage to sneak in a penalty from Kinghorn with the last kick of the half to keep in touch with the visitors who ran in for half time 16 points to 23.

Edinburgh started the second half the way they ended the first with a rather dubious penalty at the scrum. Kinghorn continued with his 100% success rate with the boot to keep his team in touch at 19 points to 23.

Edinburgh Outside Half Burnleigh celebrated scoring his second try, however it was obvious that he had been held in the tackle and used a double movement to get over the line. The resulting penalty offered a reprieve for the defending Scarlets who were able to kick the ball back into the Edinburgh half.

Edinburgh forwards took full advantage of a missed tackle from the Scarlets defence to regain their lead with Ben Toolis squeezing over for the try. Kinghorn missed the conversion attempt in a similar fashion to Aled Thomas in the first half, however the Scots were once again in the lead by a point – 24 points to 23.

Aled Thomas was offered an easy opportunity to put the visitors back in front as the game entered its final minutes but again his kick sailed left of the posts as the Scarlets were forced to continue in their wait for their first points of the half.

Unfortunately, it seemed that once again, the Scarlets’ second half performance had let them down. It has become a trend in recent weeks to build up a lead at half time and then allow the other team back into the game. This, along with a poor kicking show resulted in the Scarlets losing a game they should have won easily, by just a point – 24 points to 23.

Next Friday, Treviso travel to Parc y Scarlets as the Scarlets continue in their quest to reach the play-offs at the end of this season. Kickoff is at 7.05pm