BEARS BATTLE BACK TO WIN
SCARLETS .......................... 28 BRISTOL BEARS ................ 34
THE Scarlets tasted defeat in Friday’s pre-season friendly against Bristol Bears at Parc y Scarlets.
Despite leading 28-15 with little more than a quarter of the game remaining, the West Wales region had a to give second best as the visitors finished strongly.
First-half tries from Scott Williams, Vaea Fifta and Daf Hughes put the hosts into a 21-15 lead at half-time, with the visitors’ tries arriving from Jake Heenan, Harry Randall and Luke Morahan.
Tomás Lezana extended the home side’s advantage after the turnaround.
But it triggered a fightback from the guests, who struck back through Yann Thomas, Rich Lane and Jack Bates, with Wales fly-half Callum Sheedy pulling the strings.
Wales centre Williams gave the Scarlets the lead when he exploited poor defence to storm under the posts. Sam Costelow converted.
But the Bears hit back when England scrum-half Randall worked Piers O’connor away, and he fed inside for Heenan to finish.
Randall then pounced for his own try to give the Bears the lead.
Former All Black Fifita showed his trademark power to put the Scarlets back in front, but once again Bristol hit back when they attacked down the blindside through Charles Piutau, who stretched the defence with a burst down the touchline before passing inside for Morahan to finish the move.
Tries either side of the interval looked to put the Scarlets in control. Hooker Hughes crossed after spotting a gap down the blindside, then Lezana went over following a series of close-range drives.
But Bristol showed resolve to fight back in the last 20 minutes and claim victory.
Thomas went over for a try that Sheedy converted, then the visitors went in front when Lane crossed.
But they saved the best until last. The Bears strung together multiple phases before a long pass was spread to Bates, who sped along the touchline to score.
Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel said: “I thought it was a typical preseason game, high-scoring, lots of tries.
“I thought there were patches where we were pretty good, we moved the ball well at times, but we let in some soft tries which we need to look at and there were a few missed opportunities as well.
“We had four or five debuts towards the end of the second half, a very young team in the end, and if you look at the final five minutes they really battled and showed a lot of character, which was great to see.
“Look, there is plenty to work on, obviously, and we will go away, assess and keep working hard.
“The beauty of pre-season is that these are trial games for what is to come in the next couple of weeks.”
Peel added: “The result is never irrelevant because you play rugby to win and compete, but we won in Leicester in pre-season last year and they didn’t have a bad year after that.
“It is about performance and what you need to work on in readiness for when the season starts in a couple of weeks.”
The Scarlets continue their preparations for the URC opener against the Ospreys when they host Dragons at Parc y Scarlets on Friday (7pm).