SCARLETS SECURE BONUS POINT AGAINST BLUES

SCARLETS SECURE BONUS POINT AGAINST BLUES

By Helen ‘Helzbach’ Davies

Following a two-week break in the Pro12 with the Scarlets flying the flag for Wales in the Champions Cup, league action returns with an outing to the Capital City. The Cardiff Blues featuring several former-Scarlets welcome Rhys Patchell back to the Arms Park in the hope that they can repeat last season’s feat of doing the double over their West Walian neighbours.

Controversially, the Pro 12 organisers have been heavily criticized for the timing of this important Derby game as we await the start of the Autumn International Series, resulting in the players selected for the Senior Squad being unavailable for selection.

The Blues were very lucky not to have Matthew Morgan sin-binned early for a deliberate knock-on that almost certainly would have resulted in a try, however, Referee Lloyd Linton decided against any action, even though the Scarlets had a very good case to claim a penalty try.

They took full advantage of their line-out position to claim the first try of the evening, with Aaron Shingler showing great vision to ground the ball over his head! Patchell added the simple conversion to give the visitors a 7 point advantage.

They repeated the feat a matter of minutes later following a superb break from DTH who demonstrated amazing skills whilst gathering the ball before off-loading to Jonathan Evans who dived over under the posts. Patchell maintained his 100% kicking record to add the conversion to stretch the Scarlets lead to 0 points to 14.

Despite the strong start from the Scarlets the Blues gratefully accepted the interception try with Tom James strolling over unopposed to put his team on the scoreboard. Steve Shingler added the conversion to bring the score to 7 points to 14.

DTH was offered another opportunity to show his speed as he intercepted and steamed down the touchline towards to whitewash, only to be stopped in his tracks by Lee-Lo. Conceding the penalty gave the Blues the advantage back. However, in a game of interceptions, Aled Thomas on this occasion read the pass perfectly, making the hard yards, before off-loading to DTH who strolled over in the corner. Patchell again added the conversion to further increase the Scarlets lead to 7 points to 21.

Good pressure from the Blues saw them deep in the Scarlets 22, working through the phases as they inched closer to the try line only to be held up as the Scarlets’ defence held firm. A great tackle from Bulbring saved a certain Blues try and the home team decided to up the pressure on the Scarlets and play out the end of the first half in the scrum, obviously hoping for the penalty try. However, referee Linton became as frustrated as the crowd as yet another scrum was collapsed and he decided to sin-bin both Wyn Jones and Taufa’ao Filise. Despite this, yet another scrum collapsed and with the threat of more players possibly leaving the game for 10 minutes, a good half of rugby ended on a farcical level before Matthew Morgan was the latest Blues player to be held up over the line as the Scarlets kept their 7 point to 21 advantage.

The Scarlets couldn’t have hoped for a better start for the second half with a break from Rhys Patchell resulting in Hadleigh Parkes strolling over for the bonus point try. Somehow, Patchell managed to miss the conversion but the Scarlets lead increased to 7 points to 26.

A penalty attempt from Steve Shingler kept the scoreboard ticking over for the Blues and slightly narrowed the gap to 10 points to 26.

Harsh refereeing saw several decisions going against the Scarlets before Boyde saw yellow leaving the Scarlets a man down and the Blues hoping to take full advantage and turn the game on its head.

As both teams rang the changes, there was an extra cheer for the return of Cubby Boi James Davies, who it seems will go down in history as the best player to have never won an International Cap!

With just seconds remaining of the sin binning, Wing Blaine Scully dived over in the corner, bringing the Blues well and truly back into the game. Despite missing the conversion, the gap was now 15 points to 26.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, Steve Shingler tackled brother Aaron without the ball…. a certain yellow ball, however it seems that referee Linton confused the brothers and sin binned Aaron in error as the penalty count crept up to 17 against the Scarlets in comparison to just 6 for the Blues. At the touchline, Stephen Jones certainly demonstrated his anger at the decision as the referee single-handedly managed to ruin what was a great game of rugby.

Despite this, the Scarlets managed to secure a 15 points to 26 victory, the full 5 points, denied the Blues any points and overtook them in the League table to go up to 6th.

Next Saturday the Pro12 action continues as the Scarlets welcome Glasgow Warriors, kick off at 7.35pm.