Pivac: Get out the cheque book, we must keep Johnny
WAYNE Pivac has urged the Scarlets board to do all they can to keep hold of deadly finisher Johnny McNicholl as the Kiwi caused havoc during this gutsy defeat to Racing 92.
Despite ultimately succumbing to the home side’s power, the west Walians finally rediscovered some of the attacking swagger which took them to last season’s Champions Cup semi-finals.
A savage injury list has prevented Pivac’s side from replicating last season’s Cup run but a brace of tries from McNicholl and a score from Steff Evans allowed them to put some respectability back into the Scarlets shirt.
But they could do nothing to prevent Racing from bulldozing their way into a home quarter-final with a try-double from Simon Zebo plus a try apiece from Juan Imhoff, Henry Chavancy, Virimi Vakatawa and Teddy Iribaren securing a bonus point victory.
“Johnny McNicholl was outstanding and caused havoc whenever he had the ball,” said Pivac. “Hopefully our chairman is in the changing room with a large cheque because we really need to keep him at this region.
“I’m also really pleased for Steff Evans who has worked hard at his game to get back into the side.
“We are disappointed not to win the match but we are very pleased with our performance. We wanted to finish our campaign with a good display to take into our PRO14 fixtures.
“There were a couple of critical moments in the game during the secondhalf which didn’t go our way. We made a few mistakes, especially not taking the ball from the kick off, which gave them some field position and sides at this level will punish any mistakes you make.”
Racing grabbed the game’s first try with a wellweighted Finn Russell grubber gathered by Chavancy who put another kick through for Imhoff to score.
But Scarlets enjoyed the majority of territory and possession in the first half and Jones slotted two penalties to put the Welsh region in the lead. They extended it with a well worked try for Evans to show his pace and cross in the left corner after some neat handling by McNicholl and Jonathan Davies.
Racing hit back with Chavancy crossing as a result of a driving lineout from 5m out which came after Parkes was penalised for a high tackle.
Machenaud and Jones exchanged penalties meaning the Scarlets turned around 16-15 ahead at halftime.
The Scarlets scored first in the second half with Evans chipping over the top of the defence allowing McNicholl to gather and score.
But Racing regathered their kick off which put them on the front foot in the Scarlets 22. After a series of powerful carries they worked an overlap on the right with Zebo crossing at the corner.
Vakatawa ran straight through the Scarlets defence to score and Iribaren put more daylight between the sides with a try from short range. .Zebo put the result beyond doubt after he gathered a pinpoint cross kick from Russell.
McNicholl grabbed a late consolation for the visitors with his second try.