DELANEY RESERVES STARS WHO SEALED
GLENN Delaney praised the contribution of the bench players as the Scarlets edged out the Ospreys in a hard-fought derby on Saturday.
Scotland international Blade Thomson made a telling contribution in seeting up the winning try and head coach Delaney was delighted with the impact of his replacements.
He said: “It was massive. You look at Blade and that’s why he plays Test rugby, he is a composed, calm individual who is pretty gifted and an intuitive player. He reads the play and makes the play, that was a bit of class from him.
“I thought Tevita Ratuva really carried and gave us impetus, he is a very physical man; Pieter Scholtz also put in a shift on his debut. The bench made a good contribution.”
Delaney added that the key to victory was his side staying in the game when the Ospreys held the upper hand, adding: “We are delighted with the win. I’m really happy with the finish, but there is plenty for us to work on.
“We stayed in the game and that’s what you have to do in a derby. There were a lot of things we weren’t happy about in terms of our skill-sets and penalty count. We were very ill-disciplined and we need to correct that.
“We were putting pressure on ourselves. We were trying to play and we were quite close on a couple of occasions, a couple of pass-kicks almost went to hand.
“Probably not having a game for a week or so showed, our timing was a bit off. We have had a couple of disjointed weeks, we looked a bit rusty. I thought the Ospreys were excellent, put us under pressure and took their points well.”
The Ospreys led for most of the game thanks to a fine try from scrumhalf Reuben Morgan-williams and the boot of Stephen Myler.
But eight minutes from time, Scarlets full-back Angus O’brien went racing over after two key bits of play from replacement Thomson.
Man of the match Dan Jones added the conversion to put his side in front
for the first time and they held on to secure the win.
The game was played at Parc y Scarlets but the Ospreys were technically the home side.
The fixture was moved from the Liberty Stadium after the pitch there was replaced following problems with the surface.
Playing with the wind at their backs, the Scarlets had more of the first half in terms of possesson and territory. But it was the Ospreys who led 8-3 at the break thanks to a cracking opportunist effort from No. 9 Morgan-williams.
It was skipper Justin Tipuric who did the initial spadework, winning a turnover with a big clear-out at a ruck. Then when the ball went into midfield, it was over to young Morgan-williams.
He threw an audacious dummy at a ruck and stepped inside prop Javan Sebastian, showing good pace to reach the line from some 30 metres out as he angled away from the covering O’brien.
The Scarlets had their chances to edge in front, but they were off target with three penalties, Dan Jones hitting the woodwork with two efforts and O’brien short with another.
Fly-half Myler made no such mistake from long range straight after the break, with penalties then being traded with Jones to make it 14-9 going into the final quarter.
Then, eight minutes from time came the decisive moment, with flanker Thomson taking on the super-sub role.
First, the Scotland back-rower claimed the ball in the air following an up-and-under, before giving a nolook pass.
Then, when play moved right, he popped up again with an inside step and an offload to send O’brien away under the posts as the full-back hit a great line with an angled run.
Jones added the extra points to put his side ahead for the first time in the game and they were able to run down the clock to secure the spoils.
OSPREYS: Dan Evans; George North, Tiaan Thomas-wheeler, Scott Williams, Luke Morgan; Stephen Myler, Reuben Morgan-williams; Gareth Thomas, Dewi Lake, Tom Botha, Adam Beard, Rhys Davies, Dan Lydiate, Morgan Morris, Justin Tipuric (capt).
SCARLETS: