‘It will still be intense’
Sheriff ready for big showdown
WALES hooker Ken Owens has warned England to expect no less intensity at an empty Principality Stadium than if there were 70,000 passionate Welsh fans screaming at them.
The two sides clash this weekend with Wales gunning for the Triple Crown and Eddie Jones admitting his England side have been hit by a drop in aggression due to the coronavirus-enforced absence of spectators at grounds.
England endured their first Twickenham defeat to Scotland since 1983 before beating Italy 41-18 in another underwhelming home display.
By contrast, Wales have registered triumphs against Ireland and Scotland and into head into Saturday’s home game dreaming of a Six Nations Grand Slam.
“I think the two games we’ve played have been really physical, top-end Test matches,” said Scarlets skipper Owens.
“It feels exactly at the level we’ve had in previous years playing in Six Nations, how Test rugby should be played.”
On the absence of crowds, Owens said: “It is different. In the Ireland game the pyrotechnics stopped and then there was this silence, which was almost surreal.
“You didn’t know what to make of it.
“It obviously does have an effect not having a crowd because you feed off the energy of the fans and that atmosphere pushes on.
“I can probably see what he (Jones) is on about to a certain degree.
“Back-to-back efforts, especially defensively, and a couple of big hits, if you get a tackle on the front foot you are feeding off the energy of the crowd.
“But it’s something we’ve got to deal with and learn to adapt to. We’ve had enough time and everybody’s in the same boat.
“As a professional player there’s no real excuse. You have to find your own motivation, that energy to play at the intensity needed in Test level.”
Owens sees comparisons with two years ago under Warren Gatland, when Wales beat England in Cardiff 21-13 in the third match en route to the Grand Slam.
“We’ve gone under the radar the first two weeks, no-one really expected anything from us coming into the competition this year,” he said.
GLENN Delaney believes the fight for a spot in next season’s Champions Cup will go down to the wire.
The Kiwi saw his Scarlets side find some much-needed form and rhythm after a below-par few weeks as they saw off Benetton in Llanelli on Saturday.
And the West Wales region’s head coach insists his players must build on their momentum in the coming weeks as the battle for places in Europe’s premier club competition intensifies.
“If we hadn’t got today right then it becomes really difficult,” he said.
“The games come thick and fast, starting at Edinburgh on Saturday and we will go there full of optimism.
“Our set-piece is going to have to be strong again, they are a very good set-piece team.
“It is going to be tight at the back end of the competition.
“Hopefully we get more of what we saw today.”
A dominant first half from the Scarlets set them on their way to a crucial bonus point victory over Benetton at Parc y Scarlets.
After three straight defeats, victory was crucial for Delaney’s men.
A brace from the superlative Jac Morgan, as well as scores from Sam Costelow, Dane Blacker, Sione Kalamafoni and Paul Asquith set them up for a comfortable victory over an ill-disciplined Benetton.
It was a first half of seemingly endless pressure from the hosts.
Benetton may have opened the scoring with a Tomasso Allan penalty, but the rest of the half saw the Scarlets camped in the away side’s 22.
Having not lost four league matches in a row since 2016, the Scarlets set about putting things right after eight minutes when Morgan hammered his way through a couple of tackle attempts to get the hosts on the scoreboard.
Delaney’s side were straight back in search of a second try, constantly applying pressure through a series of repeat scrums.
Ryan Elias thought he had scored the second, only for his effort to be chalked off after video replays showed Leonardo Sarto did tremendously well to hold the hooker up.
But the Scarlets’ constant battering at the Benetton rearguard eventually took its toll as the match entered its second quarter.
The penalties conceded by the Italian outfit resulted in hooker Tomas Baravalle and tight-head prop Tiziano Pasquali being sent to the sinbin in quick succession.
Now up against 13 men, the Scarlets rattled their way to a quickfire bonus point with three tries in six minutes.
First, Costelow scythed through the shortened Benetton defence to reach out, unfortunately injuring himself in the process. That injury ultimately ended his afternoon a little later on, but not before the Scarlets had scored their third try.
Minutes after Costelow had crossed, Morgan crossed for a fine try, taking the ball out wide, riding a tackle near the touchline before some cutting through two tackles to finish a wonderful individual score.
Both tries were converted by Wales wing Steff Evans, who took over temporary kicking responsibilities after Costelow’s injury.
He didn’t convert the bonus-point try, with Dan Jones on to replace Costelow by then, with the replacement fly-half immediately playing a big part in the fourth try.
His grubber kick was flicked forward by the boot of Johnny McNicholl, with scrum-half Blacker there to dive upon the loose ball.
Trailing by 23 points at half-time, the Italians sought to remedy a few of their ills and came out fired up.
A flowing counter-attacking try by Angelo Esposito was pulled back for a knock-on, before Benetton got their reward for a solid start to the second half moments later.
Leonardo Sarto was on the end of another decent move as he stepped inside Evans to cross untouched.
Following that, Benetton never really threatened a comeback, with the Scarlets looking comfortable for large periods without showing too much efficiency in the danger zone, a facet of the game that will still concern Delaney.
However, a late flurry from the hosts saw them finish strongly.
Jones added a penalty with 15 minutes left, before Kalamafoni dived over after a nice carry in midfield from Tyler Morgan.
Benetton rumbled over for a try from a driving maul with five minutes left, with Corniel Els the scorer.
But the final word went to the Scarlets when some nice handling from McNicholl put Asquith over for their sixth try late on.
Delaney added: “The optimism was there to play and you saw the desire to move the ball wide. I was really pleased with that.
“It is about us being as good as we can be. We have worked incredibly hard for three weeks and the boys got their reward out there.
“They are a hard-working bunch. I love working with them and they deserve that.”
WE are accustomed to hearing about rugby players being laid up with torn ligaments or muscles, concussion or broken bones.
But the ailment which has kept Aaron Shingler on the sidelines for the best part of a year has been different and scary.
The Grand Slam-winning Wales forward has been fighting an inflammatory condition which he was struck down with after being taking ill during lockdown.
It meant him coming under the care of a rheumatologist and being put on special medication.
So it’s has been a long, slow road to recovery for the 33-year-old.
But now there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.
He is back in full training with the Scarlets and the hope is he will return to action in the next couple of weeks.
His club coach Glenn Delaney has been outlining just what the Scarlets flanker has gone through.
“It’s been a real rollercoaster for him,” said the New Zealander.
“You are seven-odd months deep on a pretty challenging situation. It was an inflammatory response. Those things tend to come under rheumatologists.
“If you have an overactive inflammatory response, it can affect joints and your ability to move and walk.
“The key thing was to get that under control, which they did really well, but it does take time.
“It was pretty scary there for a while. Every day, something was changing and it was different and it did take a while to get it under control.
“At a stage there, he was taking it hour by hour and then into day by day. As things progressed and the specialists got on top of it, you could see the signs of recovery.
“You then go through the phase of reducing the dose in terms of the medication. We are fortunate that the experts who were on hand to help him did a great job. It was more of a health-related situation, which I guess could happen to any of us, regardless of being a rugby player.
“Now that’s all subsided, the key thing is the reconditioning.”
It’s the second lengthy lay-off the 27cap Shingler has endured in recent years.
During the 2018 Guinness PRO14 final defeat to Leinster, he suffered a major knee injury, keeping him out of action for more than a year.
He battled his way back to be part of Wales’s 2019 World Cup squad and played six matches in Japan.
There was a further appearance against England in last year’s Six Nations, but he hasn’t been on the field again since that March day at Twickenham.
Delaney said: “He has got a pretty strong mindset. He has been really well supported by his family. They have helped him out massively.
“What you need to understand with Shings is he will give you exactly what he is thinking. He is pretty matter of fact.
“He’s a competitive sportsman who understands his body and knows the body is the tools.
“His mindset has been brilliant and he’s great to have in and around the environment.
“He is back on the training field and in full units. So we are not too far away with him.
“We are just slowly building him up, but I reckon the next couple of weeks we might be able to shift the needle on him.
“It’s now about him returning to being a rugby player which we are really pleased to see happening.”