It’s Davies again as scorching Scarlets turn it on
THE Scarlets made it back-to-back bonuspoint wins over PRO14 rivals Benetton to set-up an epic New Year trip to Bath in Round 5 of the Champions Cup.
The maximum ten points they secured from their two wins over the Italians have kept them in the hunt in Pool 5, but nothing less than two wins against their Rag Doll rivals and Toulon are likely to be good enough to see them through to their first quarter-final since 2007.
“We really wanted to nail this one to keep alive our chances in both tournaments. Now we will look forward to travelling to Bath in January after the regional derbies – it is going to be a big occasion,” admitted a very happy Scarlets head coach, Wayne Pivac.
“I was pleased that we stuck to our plan and were a lot more clinical than last week. I think we learned a lot from that game and I was happy with the way we took our chances.”
It took Pivac’s men a mere 44 minutes to pick up their much-needed bonuspoint, which moves them on to 12 points after four games and keeps them in touch with Bath and Toulon.
Leigh Halfpenny gave them the perfect start with a penalty after eight minutes and then it was his chip that paved the way for Johnny McNicholl’s opening try. The touchline conversion made it 10 points in 14 minutes.
Home coach Kieran Crowley made eight changes to his starting team from the previous weekend and they had to wait until the 78th minute for their first points of the game. Wing Monty Ioane saved their blushes with a score in the right corner and then another two minutes later in the left.
Prop Federico Zanni picked up a yellow card for a dangerous tackle in the first half and wing Angelo Esposito at the start of the second and on both occasions the Scarlets used their numerical supremacy to good advantage.
McNicholl repaid the favour to Paul Asquith for assisting in his opening try by putting the centre over and then scrum half Gareth Davies sidestepped his way over at the posts on the stroke of half-time for the third. Two more Halfpenny conversions made it 24-0 at the break.
It was the power of the Scarlets pack that paved the way for both tries from Welsh scrum half Davies in a seven-minute purple patch either side of the break.
No.8 Will Boyde picked up to set up Davies for his first and then he simply converted some great phase play with another close-range snipe four minutes after the re-start – and moments after Esposito had gone to the sin-bin for stupidly slapping away an up and under.
That made it four tries in a week against the Italians, who were a pale shadow of the side that had pushed the Scarlets all the way in Llanelli.
Scarlets saw out the rest of the game by emptying their bench. They conceded two late tries, one of which was converted by Ian McKinley, but it was a job well done in the end.