Williams fires reminder to Wales that he’s still got it

AFTER two crushing defeats at the hands of Irish provinces, Scott Williams played a captain’s role to spearhead Scarlets to a crucial win.

Scarlets conceded 93 points in losing to Munster and Leinster but the 58-cap Wales centre helped his side overcome the unavailability of 22 players.

Despite some impressive performances, Williams was not included in Wayne Pivac’s squad for the autumn internationals but Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel was in no doubt as to his capabilities.

Peel said: “He’s a quality player but has had a torrid last two years with injuries. Let’s not rush him, there is no doubt he will play for Wales again.

“We made silly errors to let them back into it, but after a tough couple of weeks, it was a big step forward for us.”

Sizeable contributions from Williams and scrum-half, Dane Blacker, ultimately made the difference but Scarlets could easily have lost a frenetic game littered by controversial decisions from the officials.

Scarlets broke the pattern of an error-ridden opening by scoring two tries in three minutes. First Blacker made a sharp break before Rob Evans finished off a succession of drives to celebrate his 150th Scarlets appearance. Blacker then turned try-scorer as he was sent over by Williams following his excellent 30 metre run.

The second quarter belonged to Benetton but they took only one of a host of chances when Monti Ioane made the running to create a try for Dewaldt Duvenage, although the scoring pass looked forward.

Benetton drew level when Thomas Gallo, burst away from a maul 20 metres and held off two defenders to score but the prop appeared to have entered the maul from the side and lost possession in grounding.

Scarlets looked in trouble but they stemmed the tide when Dan Jones kicked a penalty before Marc Jones finished off a lineout drive. Gallo scored a second before a wonderful one-handed pick-up from Williams saw him burst clear to give Blacker a second with Angus O’Brien adding a penalty.

Steff Evans crossed twice for Scarlets but both tries were ruled out by the TMO before an O’Brien pass was intercepted by Tommaso Menoncello to score but Scarlets just held on.