Sale Sharks 38 Llanelli Scarlets 3

By Whaley Shark
February 9 2015

Well that was all a bit one-sided. The Scarlets of February 2015 didn’t turn out to be quite the Llanelli of Ray Gravell, Phil Bennett and Derek Quinnell, or of the later generation which included such stars as Ieaun Evans, Rupert Moon and Scott Quinnell. Rather, with many players absent through international calls, injuries and illnesses, and perhaps it only being the LV Cup, Scarlets sent out a young and rather makeshift side against a pretty strong Sale team which really needed to get back into a winning groove.

The first try came after just four minutes as our forwards took an early grip on the game, one which they were never to loosen. It was the trademark penalty to touch, rolling maul, Dan Braid try. Scarlets gave it a good go but, in spite of having a lot of the ball, our defence was just too strong and well-organised, and they had no go forward for a period, before eventually breaking into our 22 but being denied by a foot in touch. After a bit more to-and-fro, Scarlets won a penalty, which turned out to be their only score of the match.

Our forward dominance then told as our pack destroyed the Scarlets’ scrum, Sam and Jonny bashed a huge hole in the defence and created space for Mike Haley to dive over in the right corner. There then followed almost twenty minutes of at times rather chaotic play, which ended just before half time as Scarlets broke free and were stopped a few metres sort only by a fine Mike Haley tackle. As the Scarlets struggled to switch from all out attack to defence, they were outpaced by the Sale attack, and Tom Arscott ran in from 50 metres out to give a 21-3 half time score.

The second half started with another bout of sloppy play from both sides, which ended after 55 minutes with Tom Arscott’s second try of the afternoon. Originating in a quickly taken free kick, the result of another imploding Scarlets’ scrum, some fine interpassing down the right set him free, a lovely change of pace and a wiggle of the hips left the last defender on his backside, and the score was 26-3.

Scarlets’ problems at the set piece were now so acute that our errors were almost irrelevant. Following a passage of play where we stole a Scarlets’ lineout then knocked on, won the ball at the scrum, then knocked on again, then won the ball at the next scrum too, we built pressure in the Scarlets’ 22, and eventually put Tom Brady over in heavy traffic on the left. As time ran out, Scarlets started to look as if they were thinking of the coach trip home, and we nicked a sixth try at the death, with Viliami Fihaki driving over after a 5 metre lineout and a final blast of strong forward play, to give a final score of 38-3.

Yes, a win’s a win, and you can only play what’s in front of you, and all those clichés. Our complete forward dominance laid such a strong platform that we were never going to lose this one. However, there did seem to be times when we were just a bit too clever, or tried to force it, and opportunities were missed. Maybe that’s inevitable in a game like this which, with nothing at stake for wither side, had a flavour of the pre-season friendly about it. Onward and upwards then, with four critical AP games looming.