Asquith late winner conjured by Evans
SCARLETS head coach Wayne Pivac punched the air with relief as Steff Evans conjured up a candidate for try of the season 94 seconds from the end to steer the Scarlets to a muchneeded Champions Cup victory.
A few minutes earlier it looked as though 14-man Benetton were going to end a run of 23 successive away defeats in the tournament dating back a decade, having dominated possession and territory to lead 28-21 with 10 minutes left.
No wonder, then, that Pivac was out of his seat and hugging assistant coach Stephen Jones when Paul Asquith latched onto Evans’ clever kick ahead to score the fifth try of the game and edge the Scarlets back in front.
“It took a pretty special try in the end,” admitted a mightily relieved Pivac. “I was really pleased with our start, but we wanted to blow them away again at the start of the second half and that didn’t happen.
“A bit of complacency crept in after the red card, but they played very, very well and we weren’t able to dominate the tackle area. It meant we had no ball and no territory in the second half.
“But somehow we managed to find a way. To see the energy in the last few minutes showed there was a mental blockage in the middle part of the game.”
For Benetton head coach Kieran Crowley it may have been further evidence of just how many improvements his side have made this season, but once again he had to suffer the same agony as he felt against Ulster and Toulon in seeing victory snatched away in the last few minutes.
“I’m certainly proud of the effort my team put in, especially when down to 14 men after only 25 minutes, but we have to find a way to close out games. This is the third time this season we’ve lost at the death,” he said.
“We’ll have a few more international players back next week and we’ll be up for another good game.”
Having kicked off with two tries in the space of six minutes from scrum-half Gareth Davies, it took two tries in the final five to earn the Scarlets their first win and get them back into contention in Pool 5.
Leigh Halfpenny converted both tries by Davies, the first with a step and a fend from a line out and the second rounding off a great team effort, and at that stage it looked as though the Scarlets were going to coast to victory.
Benetton No. 8 Robert Barbieri scored a try from a driving line-out to cut the gap, but then his back row partner Francesco Minto received a red for a tip tackle on David Bulbring. Moments later Tadhg Beirne went over in the corner for a third try and Halfpenny’s touchline conversion made it 21-7.
But Benetton simply refused to go away. Jayden Hayward rounded off a break by his skipper Alberto Sgarbi three minutes from the interval and Tommaso Allan’s conversion cut the gap to a single score. The second half was spent almost exclusively in the Scarlets’ half and Benetton scored twice, through wing Angelo Esposito and lock Federico Ruzza, to take the lead 28-21 with 10 minutes left.
As the clock ticked down the home side somehow found a way to win. Steff Evans crossed from close range and Rhys Patchell’s conversion tied things up at 28-28. That left the Scarlets with four minutes to conjure a winner.
They attacked from the deep re-start and two brilliant kicks into space from Steff Evans ultimately setup Paul Asquith for the winning try a mere 94 seconds from the end.