Exiles pay price for mistake as Scarlets bag opening win
THE Scarlets were pushed all the way by London Irish as they began their European Challenge Cup campaign with a narrow victory in Llanelli.
Wing Corey Baldwin and captain Steff Hughes bagged the West Wales region’s tries. with outsidehalf Dan Jones converting both and being successful with two penalties for a vital 10-point haul.
The Exiles’ touchdown came from hooker Motu Matu’u, with skipper and outside-half Stephen Myler converting and landing three penalties for 11 points.
The result means the Scarlets are second in Pool Two, behind leaders Toulon, who they meet in the South of France on Friday night.
Toulon picked up a bonus point during a 20-13 win at French rivals Bayonne.
The decisive moment at Parc y Scarlets came when the home side attacked from a line-out after going for the corner.
Their endeavour was rewarded, with Kieron Fonotia putting in a delicate chip for fellow centre Hughes to catch and score.
Jones converted to open up a seven-point advantage. Myler responded with a penalty but the Scarlets held on for a vital victory.
New coach Brad Mooar acknowledged: “It wasn’t pretty. First half ball-in-play time was 12 minutes.
“Credit to our boys, they stuck at it. The second half had slightly more flow to it and we will take the victory.”
The Scarlets are treading unusual ground because this is the first time they have been in the second-tier Challenge Cup at the pool stage after failing to qualify for the premier Heineken Champions Cup.
The even nature of the contest had been reflected by the scores being locked at 10-10 at the end of the first half. Each side had led twice, with the boot of Jones having given the Scarlets the lead in the 14th minute.
The Scarlets had turned down kickable penalties against Benetton to chase tries in the Guinness PRO14 a week earlier and the tactic had almost cost them the win.
So they didn’t hesitate this time to point to the posts when awarded a penalty on the 22 for Jones to push them ahead with his trusty right boot.
A late tackle from Steff Evans gave London Irish a penalty, but Myler elected to bang it into a corner.
His decision paid off as they probed following the line-out before Matu’u came back on the angle to take two defenders with him as he reached out for the try.
Myler chipped over the conversion to put them in front, but they were temporarily a player down after having had centre Bryce Campbell sin-binned for deliberately beating the ball down.
The Scarlets regained the lead when they capitalised on an horrendous blunder by the opposition for the second match in a row to score a try.
Jones put a wicked grubber-kick behind the onrushing defence and London Irish full-back Tom Parton made a pig’s ear of dealing with it as he raced back.
The ball bounced loose and a delighted Baldwin was on hand to dive on it for the score, with Jones converting.
Myler levelled matters with a penalty after Scarlets prop Werner Kruger offended at a scrum and put them ahead for the second time with another strike.
Irish try-scorer Matu’u had been living offside when the Scarlets had been on the attack and was pinged by Irish referee Sean Gallagher for a repeat offence. Jones punished him to tie the scores with the final kick of the half.
The second half was another a stop-start affair, with the Scarlets coming out on the right side of the scoreboard to send their supporters home happy.