Six-try Scarlets gear up for Scottish ‘cup final’
GLENN Delaney has labelled next week’s PRO14 clash with Edinburgh a cup final after his side cruised past Benetton in the race for Champions Cup qualification.
With the top four sides in each conference qualifying for European rugby’s premier club competition, the Scarlets are 11 points clear of Edinburgh, who have two games in hand, while the Cardiff Blues are also in the mix from Conference B.
After this six-try thrashing of a woeful Benetton, Delaney believes victory in Scotland can help secure a place at Europe’s top table.
“I think today was one of those,” said Delaney, when asked if next weekend’s clash in the Scottish capital was a cup final.
“It’s about taking it step by step, but we will circle the wagons and head up there with that sort of mentality. We are going up there to win the game.
“It’s going to be really tight at the back end of the competition and hopefully we’ll see more of what we saw out there today.
“We set the game up really nicely in the first half. The set-piece was going extremely well, and we put them under pressure at scrum time which led to territory. That meant we could control the game.”
Former Wales U20 captain Jac Morgan was sensational, scoring two tries on a blustery afternoon in Llanelli with the openside’s move to the Ospreys next season leaving a big void to fill at Parc y Scarlets.
Scarlets started the game strongly with Morgan powering over from short range off the back of a driving lineout.
Benetton were soon down to 14 men when hooker Tomas Baravalle was sent to the sin-bin for killing the ball at the breakdown after an accu
mulation of penalties. The visitors were then reduced to 13 men when tighthead prop Tiziano Pasquali was given a yellow card for repeatedly infringing at the scrum.
Sam Costelow made the most of the Scarlets’ twoman advantage when he ghosted past two defenders to score. Unfortunately, the Wales U20s outside-half injured himself in the process meaning wing Steff Evans had to take the conversion.
Scarlets were now rampant with Morgan claiming their third try after he dummied and squeezed his way past two tackles to score, with Evans again converting.
Delaney’s side secured their try bonus-point just before the interval when replacement No.10 Jones dinked a grubber kick behind the defence. The ball was flicked ahead by Johnny McNicholl whose kick fell into the arms of Dane Blacker to score. Jones added the extras for a 26-3 lead at half-time.
Benetton were a lot better in the early stages of the second half and claimed their first try when Leonardo Sarto stepped inside Evans to score, with Edoardo Padovani converting.
Scarlets soon had their fifth try with a Tyler Morgan break taking them into the Benetton 22. He was brought down short but the ball was recycled and Morgan’s pass sent Kalamafoni over.
Benetton refused to throw in the towel with replacement hooker Corniel Els touching down from short range before Paul Asquith scored the Scarlets’ sixth try.