Scarlets’ stunning record run sets Dublin alight
Two wins in eight days in Dublin have turned the Scarlets from also-rans into Guinness Pro12 champions.
They silenced the RDS with their comprehensive semi-final victory over Leinster and they stunned the Munster hordes across the road with a another record-breaking effort as they notched the most points (46) and most tries (six) in a final and created the biggest winning margin (24) before a record final crowd.
They had made history in Dublin earlier by becoming the first away team to win a semi-final and, even though they returned once again as big underdogs, they got off to a flying start. They plundered four tries before the break and should have scored a fifth. At one stage Scarlets looked like scoring every time they had the ball.
Tyler Bleyendaal kicked Munster ahead with a penalty following a collapse at the game’s first scrum, but it was 33 minutes before the Irishmen had anything else to celebrate. In between, they were simply ripped apart.
Liam Williams grabbed the first try as he raced on to an inch perfect kick by Rhys Patchell and then, two minutes later, Jonathan Davies linked up the left wing with Steff Evans to create a brilliant try for the young wing.
If the crowd thought that was good, they were given another example of the Scarlets’ creativity from the restart.
This time it was only knock-on five metres out by Gareth Davies that stopped it from being three tries in five minutes. Davies soon made amends for that miss by racing the length of the Munster 22 after taking an inside pass from Scott Williams after he had broken through.
Next over the Munster line was lock Tadhg Beirne, who twisted and powered his way past five forwards to score from 10 metres out, and all the time Patchell kept adding the extras. It was 29-3 after 32 minutes.
A try at the posts by Bleyendaal, which the outside-half also converted, threw Munster a lifeline on half-time, but the odds of a fightback took a major kick in the teeth when Patchell kicked a penalty to stretch the lead to at least four scores shortly after the restart.