PEEL ENDURES A SOBERING DEFEAT
THE Scarlets were thrashed by an under-strength Munster side at Parc y Scarlets yesterday. It was a sobering 80 minutes for new boss Dwayne Peel, who watched his side come off comfortably second best.
Munster made 11 changes to the side who beat the Stormers last week and were without star players Conor Murray, Peter O’mahony, Simon Zebo, Keith Earls and Joey Carbery.
The visitors started fastest and asserted some early dominance. A raking 50:22 from fly-half Ben Healy put his side in position before the forwards went to work.
No. 8 Jack O’sullivan cut a smart angle to catch Ken Owens unawares and cantered under the sticks after five minutes.
Healy knocked over the conversion and followed it up with a penalty after opposite number Sam Costelow missed a three-pointer of his own.
The hosts then looked to have scored a sizzling try of their own but the TMO spotted a knock-on in the build-up, before Costelow was on target with a penalty in the 16th minute.
Munster extended their lead midway through the half, taking advantage of more lacklustre Scarlets defence.
Visiting winger Calvin Nash dusted Welsh international Steff Evans in the five-metre channel before drawing the last man and sending Liam Coombes over for their side’s second score. Healy converted.
The hosts then lost centre Scott Williams, who took a blow to the face at a breakdown and never returned, which will be of concern to Wales boss Wayne Pivac, who names his autumn squad in the coming days.
Peel’s side clawed their way back into the game on the half-hour mark, when a fortuitous bounce of the ball saw it land in Costelow’s arms.
He broke in behind and kicked cleverly towards the posts for Johnny Mcnicholl to race onto it and touch down.
The Scarlets No. 10 converted and added a penalty to reduce the deficit to just four points.
But the visitors delivered a hammer blow just before the break.
A sumptuous cut-out pass from Healy beat Gareth Davies and winger Evans to find speedster Nash, who raced over in the corner.
The conversion was missed but Munster led 22-13 at the break.
Things really got ugly in the second half with the Scarlets’ defence now resembling a brittle sieve.
The bonus-point score came just four minutes into the half and there was an air of inevitability about it. A penalty was kicked to the corner and Munster went to their power game, with loosehead prop Jeremy Loughman burrowing his way over from close range.
The hosts then enjoyed a 10-minute spell but barely made a dent before Munster broke out with Jack O’donoghue marauding up the middle of the field before chipping ahead for Coombes to bag his second try of the afternoon.
By the hour mark, the Scarlets were in disarray.
Jonathan Davies gathered a loose ball and fired a wild pass at Tom Rogers. The hosts then had to retreat to gather the ball as Munster flooded through and it ended with the young winger being snaffled behind his own line.
One phase after the scrum-five, man of the match Chris Cloete wandered over with relative ease and Healy knocked over his fifth conversion of the afternoon.
Mercifully, there were no scores in the final quarter and the final deficit was 30 points.
In truth, the Scarlets were fortunate the margin was not greater.