THE SHERIFF COMES OUT FIRING AS SCARLETS ROAR BACK
IT may not have been the last time Ken Owens pulls on the No. 8 jersey, but the Scarlets skipper had more important things on his mind at the final whistle of Saturday’s hardearned victory over the Dragons.
Seven days earlier, Owens, a player who gives every last drop in every game, had left the field to the sound of boos from sections of a 10,000-plus Parc y Scarlets crowd.
He came in for criticism himself for a decision to go for the corner instead of three points early in the second half, with the flak coming not just from fans on social media, but from closer to home.
Speaking in an interview to broadcasters Premier Sports minutes after his side had ended a five-match losing streak with a scrappy 22-13 derby win over the Dragons, the Wales and Lions hooker was in no mood for holding back.
“A lot of people have questioned us, questioned me personally, They can do what they want, but the boys have stuck together over the last couple of weeks and really dug it out and we got the result,” he said.
“One thing I have learned over the last month or so, when you winning everyone is in it together, when you are losing everybody starts pointing fingers.
“As a squad we have really stuck together. It wasn’t pretty out there, but we knew what we had to do, we had to get the win and we did that.”
Asked about the booing in the wake of the Cardiff Blues defeat, Owens elaborated: “People outside of our group can do what they want; it’s not just the supporters booing us, there has been a lot of criticism from within the club as well, that is the way it is.
“We have stayed tight over the last month or so, we know what we can do, we have faced a lot of adversity, we are a tough group.
“You find a lot about your squad and players when your backs are against the wall and at times it is all about winning.
“We are just happy to get the result.”
With that, Owens headed into the dressing room to toast a much-needed victory to kickstart 2019.
The Scarlets are still a shadow of the slick outfit who have enjoyed unprecedented success in the Guinness PRO14 in recent seasons, but that is understandable considering the casualty count they have had to deal with.
Seven absent back-rowers meant Owens was forced into wearing the No. 8 jersey for the first time in his professional career on Saturday.
And unsurprisingly, he let nobody down.
The final stats showed 12 carries for 27 metres, six tackles and a turnover strip for good measure.
But it is Owens’s leadership that is proving invaluable at such a testing time for the West Walians.
“He is immense,” said head coach Wayne Pivac. “He leads by example, he puts his body on the line every week.
“To be honest, we didn’t have any-
one else to play No. 8, it was either him or Hadleigh Parkes and I’m not joking.
“We have seven loose forwards out and you already have Dan Davis playing who is a young man, Ed Kennedy in his first season and Tom Phillips, who has been out with a head injury and had just the one training run.
“The way we play and our attacking structure from phase play means Ken is out in those wide channels a lot anyway.
“It didn’t really matter if he had number two or number eight on his back, it just meant a change in position at the set-piece.
“And I thought he handled it pretty well, it shows the true leader he is.
“To get a British Lion to play from the front row to the loose forwards at this level of the game, he is putting the jersey first, the club first.”
And Owens may well have to play there again when Leicester Tigers arrive for a round-five Champions Cup tie next Saturday.
European tournament regulations state you are only allowed to draft in three additional players from outside of your original squad (and one of those must be a front-rower) during the pool stages and the Scarlets have already used up their quota.
With Phillips not registered for Europe and Will Boyde, Josh Macleod and James Davies unlikely to be back to full fitness, there are few other options alongside Davis and Kennedy.
For the Dragons, they have been here before.
In January at Parc y Scarlets, former head coach Bernard Jackman hauled off his two props after 26 painful minutes at the coal face.
And in the Judgement Day clash at the Principality Stadium in April, they endured similar woes.
Like the Scarlets in the back row, the Dragons have been hit by a propping crisis with Leon Brown, Brok Harris and Ryan Bevington injured and Lloyd Fairbrother sitting out a three-week suspension. They also lost Wales international Aaron Jarvis to a hamstring issue after just 16 minutes.
Against international props of the calibre of Rob Evans and Samson Lee, they were always going to struggle and so it proved with three of the Scarlets’ first-half penalties coming via the scrum, leading to Dan Suter being yellow-carded just before the interval.
Interim coach Ceri Jones is hoping Brown and Harris will be back to bolster the side for the resumption of PRO14 action at the end of the month, while a home Challenge Cup tie against Timisoara Saracens should give the side a chance to inject some more confidence after an encouraging few weeks.