Away bonus keeps Sarries on track for famous treble

SARACENS aim to go one better than last season and clinch the treble after this cup triumph at Scarlets.

The damage was done in the first-half as the visitors raced into an 18-0 lead thanks to tries from Nick Tompkins and Matt Gallagher.

Morgan Allen and Billy McBryde led a second-half fightback, but Mike Ellery’s solo score ended their hopes of a second Anglo-Welsh win before Tom Whiteley sealed the bonus-point late on.

“We’re still in it; we needed the five points to keep pressure on Northampton and Leicester,” said Saracens academy coach, Ian Vass.

“We wanted to go into the final round with a chance of advancing and we’ve done that. Scarlets destroyed our breakdown two weeks ago so that was a big focus and when we got it right we created tries.”

Scarlets were out for revenge after Saracens ended their European hopes two weeks ago. But they were behind inside two minutes when Max Malins landed a penalty after the West Walians failed to release at a ruck.

The Sarries outside-half failed with a second attempt, but was soon lining up a conversion after Tompkins sliced through the centre from close range to score.

At 10-0 the next try was crucial, and it was the English side who got it when Gallagher raced onto Tim Streather’s kick through to score in the left corner. And there was still time for a Malins to boot a late penalty for a 18-0 lead at half-time.

Scarlets fly-half Jack Maynard landed a penalty shortly after the restart, before Allen got the hosts right back in it.

Scarlets had looked to have wasted a three-man overlap, but the no.8 bulldozed over form close-range - Maynard converted to bring the Scarlets back to within eight points, before Rotimi Segun was sin-binned from the restart.

But Ellery made sure there was breathing distance between the teams when he chipped on and beat the covering defenders in a foot-race to score before

Scarlets replacement McBryde reignited the fight-back, but Whiteley evaded the defence to snipe in and wrap the victory up before Streather was sin-binned at the death.

Scarlets Anglo-Welsh Cup coach Ioan Cunningham said: “It was a long way to come back from but credit has to go to the group because they showed some real character in the second-half.”