There were always going to be a few bumps in the road, and from the looks of it; with the league being our main focus, I’m not surprised that it was in one of the cup competitions that we came majorly unstuck for the first time.
Full disclosure, I didn’t watch this live, we were out with some friends and watching the score notifications tick up and up was accompanied by feelings familiar to all long-term Newcastle supporters. So, to determine where it all went wrong, and why the decided to let us have 20-odd consolation points at the death, I fired up the replay on Sunday morning cup of tea in hand.
The first thing that jumps out was, I definitely wouldn’t be the only one watching on catchup. I blame the late night Saturday kick off again for both ends of Parc y Scarlets being closed, and even with that, the amin stands looking pretty thin on the ground. From what I understand it’s not the easiest to get to, especially for the main supporter’s demographic in Carmarthenshire. After a week of questioning fan attendances in the league it sometimes feels like the sport is not helping itself with things like this.
That out of the way, I was actually confident of getting something out of this one, despite the rotated squad. Had I been there live, that would’ve evaporated pretty quick as we gave up the opening kick-off although thankfully we held off an organised looking Scarlets. After that wobble we looked bright, with Brandon Jackson starting brightly especially, but it wasn’t long before Scarlets got control over the contest.
Once again the set piece looks a bit concerning. This is a few weeks on the spin now we’ve given up promising positions and big points to scrum penalties and it’s starting to feel like a bit of a weakness of ours. Same as our reluctance to go to the driving maul close to the opposition line.
We did show some good defence early on down on our own line, blunting a couple of visits from the Scarlets to our own 22 with some good turnovers and solid tackling. The good work was undone however, by some iffy clearance kicking. Often not very long and frequently easily covered by the Scarlets backfield, the kicking very much invited the pressure to keep coming as the talented quick men from the Welsh outfit, often making us look foolish on the chase.
Again we look keen to play from anywhere but it was an ill-advised quick tap that eventually set the dominoes falling that led to the lovely bit of skill from Gareth Davies that sprung Sam Costelow’s run through the ruins of a driving maul and over for the first score. Those two make for a scary combination at this level, and I hear there has been some call for Davies to reverse his international retirement to keep the pairing going for Wales. The very much gave them the control and nouse that we were lacking and both kicked well to keep the pressure on when it mattered and keep the ball out of our hands. They had a good time targeting our backfield as well and Jake Dalziel’s inexperience told a little bit as he had a few mix-ups with Josh Hodge under the high ball.
All that said, we didn’t really get a look in, in the first half. We had some ball, and the odd moment of quality but really they bossed us out of the game tactically and physically and we struggled to get moving against their defence, going in down 26 was probably about what we deserved.
It was almost more right after the break, Scarlets seemed to really get after Dalziel and he was lucky not to give away a try after spilling a routine ball. I’m glad he earned the start here but I think we did see that he is still just a young lad in this game, and that for all the promise, the club will still need to look after him for now. He was helped by the addition of Simon Benitez Cruz at halftime who brought a bit of control to go with his usual energy although we still struggled to make much ground until Brett Connon came on to steer the ship at the 50 minute mark. We did cross the whitewash with his first attack but even from the TV angle it was clear that try was never going to stand.
After that it was more of the same. Davies and Costelow were excellent and seemed to be able to unlock us at will at times, and while we were perfectly able to move the ball in midfield the try line stayed stubbornly out of reach until the URC side took their foot off the gas at 47 – 0 up. The yellow card didn’t help but the game was out of our reach long before then.
POM: Simon Benitez Cruz – Somehow added both some much needed control and some attacking zip when he came including teeing up a couple of tries. Also miraculously came up with a turnover at the breakdown at one point which I think surprise himself just as much as the Scarlets.
Chalk this one up to experience then, and I think we can say that European rugby is not high on the priority list for this year now. Expect plenty of changes for a big game at home to Sale next week.
Leave a Reply