Free-scoring Scarlets get Mooar’s reign off to a flyer

THE Scarlets dominated their Channel Island hosts in the first outing of the Welsh region’s preseason.

The visitors were without more than 20 players as a result of World Cup duty and injuries, but scored seven tries to delight Brad Mooar in his first game as head coach.

“It was a really exciting first game – we created a lot of chances in the first half,” he said. “Our execution let us down a few times, but we did really well in the second half.

“We had several new players and others coming back from longterm injury and I was really pleased with the way they performed.”

Jersey Reds’ match programme had mentioned Scarlets’ Johnny McNicholl as ‘one to watch’ and within two minutes the Kiwi fullback had showed why.

He beat two tacklers and scorched towards the try-line before feeding Tom James for the opening score.

After scrum-half Kieran Hardy went close against his former side, second row Morgan Jones claimed Scarlets’ second, stretching full length to finish after taking Corey Baldwin’s pass.

The Reds grabbed a score back when Jack Macfarlane rumbled over from a maul, and could have trimmed the deficit further in the final play when George Spencer narrowly failed to pull off an interception in the Welsh side’s 22.

As in the first half, the visitors struck early having brought on an entirely new line-up. Ryan Conbeer went close in the corner and then Steffan Hughes followed up to cross.

Play was stopped while Scarlets’ Taylor Davies was treated for a head injury – the replacement hooker was stretchered off and went to hospital for a precautionary check-up having recovered consciousness.

Angus O’Brien’s crosskick led to an easy catch and try for Tom Prydie, and although TJ Harris grabbed one back for Jersey, the visitors finished strongly with three tries in the last 15 minutes from Lewis Rawlins, O’Brien and Conbeer, the latter after an 80-metre kick-and-chase.

Jack Stapley had the final word for the hosts, going over in the last minute.

Reds director of rugby Harvey Biljon said: “It’s always disappointing to lose, albeit that it’s less painful in pre-season.

“As players and coaches I hope we go away and learn from this – we’ve been shown how far we still need to go if we want to continue to improve.”