Toothless Tigers handed a harsh lesson by Pivac’s men
THE Scarlets enjoyed a moraleboosting 33-10 victory over Leicester Tigers as a number of Wales internationals impressed in front of Warren Gatland.
One win in six matches illustrated the rut the region had found themselves in but, in many ways, the pressure was largely off.
Ulster’s narrow victory over Racing 92 before kick-off in West Wales meant that Leicester could no longer make the knockout stages of the Champions Cup, making the game a dead rubber.
And in the first quarter it had all the trademarks of a game that had nothing riding on it.
Referee Mathieu Raynal was the most involved individual early on, which is never a good sign, as both teams made errors.
Returning centre Kieron Fonotia looked slippery and weaved his way through the Tigers’ defence on occasions and Matt Toomua carved the hosts up with a searing break.
But, on the whole, the opening 20 minutes was flat and stuttered along. Both teams enjoyed their share of territory but couldn’t find a cutting edge at the business end of the pitch.
The game may have had nothing riding on it but Wales boss Gatland was in the stands and positions were up for grabs in the Six Nations squad that he names on Tuesday.
With that in mind, hooker Ryan Elias began to come to the fore, carrying relentlessly and making good yards in the process – a constant source of go-forward ball.
Winger Steff Evans was handed a chance to make a big statement in European action and was always looking for work.
Ken Owens was at his industrious best, with injuries still forcing him to feature at No.8, and suddenly the Scarlets found what had been lacking.
Jones had booted the Scarlets into good field position and Elias carried well to put his side back on the front foot after a scrappy lineout in Leicester’s 22.
Owens ploughed the passage down to within metres of the line and Gareth Davies looked as if he’d reached the whitewash with a snipe.
Not to worry, Rob Evans was on hand to barrel his way over from the next phase to open the scoring on 26 minutes.
The conversion was missed but more points were on the horizon.
More Leicester indiscipline gifted field position to the Scarlets and they would take full advantage.
Elias carried twice in the passage, backed up by Samson Lee as they edged towards the line and then Davies probed around the fringes before putting Owens through a half gap and that’s all he needed.
The stand-in back-rower bulldozed his way through a handful of defenders to score the second try and the Scarlets were suddenly looking way more up for this than their opponents.
Half-time came at the wrong time but the hosts took in a 12-0 advantage at the break.
Any fears that the break would halt the hosts’ momentum were misplaced.
Eight minutes into the second half, the hosts went to their driving maul, that survived Leicester infringements to keep rumbling on towards the line. It carried Wales prop Evans with it and he broke away to barge his way over from close range, capping a brilliant performance.
The Scarlets pushed the tempo and scrum-half Davies was having his best game for some time – it was a timely performance with Gatland observing – and he was the catalyst for the bonus-point score on 50 minutes.
Wayne Pivac’s side had a penalty just inside their own half and he went quick before spinning it wide where the ball eventually reached Paul Asquith in oceans of space.
When the ball was recycled, Fonotia went through a gaping hole in the Tigers defence before drawing the last man and popping the ball to Johnny McNicholl, who had the easiest of run-ins. Tigers appeared more concerned about the traffic on the M4.
But there was more pain to be inflicted.
Mike Williams was sin-binned for a no-arms tackle around the shins of Ed Kennedy and the Scarlets made him pay.
The ball was shipped wide to winger Evans, who has been frozen out in recent weeks at Parc y Scarlets, and he stepped inside Wales rival Jonah Holmes, who had a frustrating evening, to score a try that received a huge cheer from the home fans.
Amid a raft of substitutions, Leicester got themselves two tries through Will Evans and Mike Fitzgerald, but it had no impact on the final outcome.
Before last night’s game, the Scarlets had won just one of their last six matches, a run that included a loss to