COSTLY ERRORS LEAVE SCARLETS RED-FACED
DWAYNE Peel’s reign with the Scarlets started with an error-strewn defeat away to Edinburgh on Saturday night in the United Rugby Championship.
They had chances to win it at the death, but ultimately a series of errors before half-time sealed their fate.
And in the battle of the new head coaches, it was Edinburgh supremo Mike Blair who enjoyed a winning start with a bonus-point victory.
The home side’s defiant defence won the day after they had taken charge thanks to some excellent attacking from new signings Henry Immelman and Ben Vellacott as well as established star Darcy Graham.
The Scarlets started full of confidence, with returning centre Scott Williams showing up nicely.
He looked to have opened the scoring after a lovely move, only for the try to be chalked off for a forward pass from Steff Evans.
However, not long later, Williams – back with the West Wales region after an injury-plagued spell with the Ospreys – proved the catalyst for Evans to dive over in the corner after a lovely delayed pass found space out wide.
The West Walians looked in danger of running away with it as another try was chalked off when a maul was held up over the line.
However, as promising as the first quarter was, the second was equally as bad.
After withstanding heavy pressure, Edinburgh eventually injected tempo into the game, with scrum-half Vellacott looking lively, but they were provided with the platform by continuous errors from the visitors.
First, the Scarlets coughed up possession in their own 22, with the Scottish outfit immediately taking advantage as Blair Kinghorn and Mark Bennett combined to put the former over for a simple try.
Shortly after, Edinburgh stretched their lead when Bennett hit a hard line from a ruck, crashing through some soft shoulders to score from close range.
Dan Jones’s first successful attempt from the kicking tee at the third attempt reduced the gap, only for another error to hand Edinburgh an instant score.
Hardy was caught dithering at the base of the ruck – although there were legitimate questions as to whether the ball was actually out of the ruck – but the hosts capitalised on the situation, with Graham spinning through a series of tackle attempts to score.
Graham’s try went unconverted but a 19-8 lead at the break was far better than Edinburgh could have expected after their difficult opening quarter.
The Scarlets started the second half with another try chalked off as Evans’s feet brushed the touchline before he grounded the ball.
They did close the gap, however, with Hardy waltzing through a gap to score with half an hour to go.
However, just before the hour mark, Graham – fed by Vellacott – blasted through the broken defence to leave Kinghorn a simple conversion to restore the two-score lead.
That could have been that, only for some textbook work by centre pairing Williams and Jonathan Davies to create a try for Johnny Mcnicholl, reducing the deficit to just four points as the match neared the final 10 minutes.
Try as they might, though, they just couldn’t find a winning score, despite Edinburgh living on their nerves in the final few minutes.
EDINBURGH: Immelman; Graham, Bennett, Hutchison, Hoyland; Kinghorn, Vellacott; Schoeman, Mcinally, Atalifo, Sykes, Gilchrist, Ritchie, Mata, Crosbie. Reps: Cherry, Venter, Nel, Hodgson, Boyle, Pyrgos, van der Walt, Lang.
SCARLETS: Mcnicholl; Conbeer, J Davies, S Williams, S Evans; D Jones, Hardy; R Evans, Elias, Lee, Shingler, T. Price, Thomson, Kalamafoni, Davis. Reps: M Jones, P Price, John, Phillips, S Evans, Blacker, Costelow, Nicholas.