Quick-fire treble stuns leaders at Thomond
WAYNE Pivac praised his Scarlets for the manner in which they came from 15 points adrift at the break to shock leaders Munster at Thomond Park.
Scarlets looked dead and buried when they trailed 21-6 at the interval but turned things around after the break with the breeze.
“We felt that in the first half we gifted them some territory,” Pivac said. “We fell off a few tackles, soaked a few tackles up and gave them what they wanted which was go-forward ball.
“This group is very proud of the results its achieved whilst the internationals have been away. They’re unbeaten whilst the internationals have been away and they want to try and keep it that way.
“They’re working very hard for each other, they’re a tightknit bunch. It would have been easy to let that game slip away at 21-6. They stuck at it and scored the points when they came they led by three converted tries to two penalties at the break.
Two penalties from Dan Jones was all Scarlets, beaten just once in the PRO12 since September, could offer up in the opening half.
Dave O’Callaghan, after a superb offload by Bleyendaal, made the break for the opening try after 13 minutes and while he was stopped short, Francis Saili spun the ball wide for No.8 Conor Oliver to send Jaco Taute, playing at fullback, over for his eighth try of the season.
Two penalties to the left corner by Munster led to the second try after 23 minutes with Darren Sweetnam this time supplying the finish after Duncan Williams, Bleyendaal and Taute had spun the ball through their hands.
The opening for the third try came from centre Dan Goggins with a superb break, with an excellent pass from scrum half Williams putting academy graduate Oliver over for his second try of the camPAUL on offer and they’re very, very happy.”
Munster looked to be cruising to victory when paign. And with Bleyendaal superb, landing all three conversions, it seemed only a matter of how many they would win by.
Scarlets took control of proceedings and started running in the tries to secure a priceless win.
Scarlets got a good footing early in the second-half
with Jones getting his third penalty.
Then his captain Hadleigh Parkes got in for their opening try after 56 minutes as the Munster defence was carved open.
Scarlets, boosted by this score, were full of confidence and crossed again three minutes later through full-back Johnny McNicholl.
And with Jones converting both tries, they suddenly led 23-21 going into the final quarter.
Munster’s woes were completed 18 minutes from time when Scarlets again worked it through the hands for full-back Tim Williams to score, with Jones adding the extras to make it 30-21.
There was just no way back for Munster with Kilcoyne being stopped short four minutes from time and they could not even manage a losing bonus point.
“It’s disappointing to lose, especially at home,” said Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus. “But they are a good side, we have to give them credit and they fought back well in the second-half.
“It is inevitable that you will have games like this so we just have to take the lessons from it and improve.”