DELANEY: WE CAN’T SLIP IN EURO BATTLE
GLENN Delaney believes the fight for spot in next season’s Champions Cup will go down to the wire. The Kiwi saw his Scarlets side find some much-needed form and rhythm after a below-par few weeks as they saw off Benetton in Llanelli.
And the West Wales region’s head coach insists his players must build on their momentum in the coming weeks as the battle for paces in Europe’s premier club competition intensifies.
“If we hadn’t got today right then it becomes really difficult,” he said.
“The games come thick and fast starting at Edinburgh on Saturday and we will go there full of optimism.
“Our set-piece is going to have to be strong again, they are a very good set-piece team.
“It is going to be tight at the back end of the competition. Hopefully we get more of what we saw today.”
A dominant first-half from the Scarlets set them on their way to a crucial bonus-point victory at Parc y Scarlets.
After three straight defeats, victory was crucial for Delaney’s men.
A brace from the superlative Jac Morgan, as well as scores from Sam Costelow, Dane Blacker, Sione Kalamafoni and Paul Asquith set them up for a comfortable victory over an ill-disciplined Benetton.
It was a first half of seemingly endless pressure from the hosts.
Benetton may have opened the scoring with an Tomasso Allan penalty, but the rest of the half saw the Scarlets camped in the away side’s 22.
Having not lost four league matches in a row since 2016, the Scarlets set about putting things right after eight minutes when Morgan hammered his way through a couple of tackle attempts. The relentless penalties conceded by the Italian outfit resulted in hooker Tomas Baravalle and tight-head prop Tiziano Pasquali being sent to the sin-bin in quick succession.
Now up against 13 men, the Scarlets rattled their way to a quickfire bonus point with three tries in six minutes.
First, Costelow scythed through the Benetton defence to reach out – unfortunately injuring himself in the process.
That injury ultimately ended his afternoon a little later on, but not before the Scarlets had scored their third.
Minutes after Costelow had crossed, Morgan crossed for a fine try, taking the ball out wide, riding a tackle near the touchline before some cutting through two tackles to finish a wonderful individual score.
Both tries were converted by Wales winger Steff Evans, who took over temporary kicking responsibilities after Costelow’s injury. He wouldn’t convert the bonus-point try – with Dan Jones on to replace Costelow by then, with the replacement fly-half immediately playing a big part in the fourth try.
His grubber kick was flicked forward by the boot of Johnny McNicholl, with scrum-half Blacker there to dive upon the loose ball.
Trailing by 23 points at half-time, the Italians sought to remedy a few of their ills and came out fired up.
Leonardo Sarto was on the end of another decent move, stepping inside Evans to cross untouched.
However, the hosts finished with a flourish.
Jones added a penalty with 15 minutes left, before Kalamafoni dived over after a nice carry in midfield from Tyler Morgan. Benetton rumbled over for a try from a driving maul with five minutes left, with Corniel Els the scorer.
But the final word went to the Scarlets as some nice handling from McNicholl put Asquith over for their sixth try late on.