By SAINT_aithch
January 14 2012

I will start by congratulating Scarlets on having such a fantastic setup in Llanalli. This was my first visit to the South West Wales stadium and I must say that I was greeted with a warm welcome from the natives I spoke to, and after a walk around what certainly looked like a magnificent stadium from the outside, found the village set up in, what I assume is their indoor training hall complete with Astroturf (carefully protected from Joe public stomping, beer spilling and leaving food debris all over it. Inside the impressive looking stadium, Parc y Scarlets was pretty much like many other stadia of similar size and layout and the 9,869 crowd for this game seemed to rattle around inside its walls similar to the atmosphere at the Mad Stad with the seats behind one end of the pitch not in use, and only half the stand in use at the opposite end.

SCARLETS vs NORTHAMPTON SAINTS

Heineken Cup: Saturday, 14^th January 2012. 13:30 k.o

PARC Y SCARLETS

MATCH REPORT

The pitch was a little cut up and the teams were as expected with Ryan Lamb taking a bench start for a change. Scarlets kicked off, and Smyler pinged them back into their 22. Within 5 minutes of fairly open play, Tom May made a silly decision to toss (as throw would be far too hard a word) the ball into an opponents face. Mr Rolland, not to be taken lightly in any game and known for his swift showing of cards to players who displease him, swiftly branded a yellow card and Saints were down to 14 men. A run of silly errors during this first half was to tarnish what would generally be a pretty good game for the Saints and even one man down for the next few minutes, Saints held their own and the majority of play was in the Scarlets half of the pitch.

Some fairly good runs of play, mostly from Saints with some good passing and a few lineouts that went our way finally ended with Saints giving another penalty away in kicking distance for Rhys Priestland, who, in my opinion had an exceptional game and is very much the playmaker he should be in the fly half position. Priestland didn’t waste the opportunity and with 9 minutes on the clock, Scarlets took the lead.

The vast majority of the first 20 minutes was spent in the Scarlets half, and most of that in their 22 and yet Saints were falling foul of Mr Rolland’s whistle with a number of indiscretions which led to Priestland slotting another penalty after Dylan was pinged for side entry into a ruck. Six nil down after 14 minutes but you couldn’t help think that Saints were having the better game.

Ashton and Foden were making some good play and Manoa appeared to be crashing into their centres at every opportunity and all this hard work eventually led to a penalty for Saints just outside the Scarlets 22. Myler duly converted it and Saints were finally on the scoreboard.

A few minutes later and a penalty that should have been a dink into the corner for Myler was reversed and Mr Rolland had a word with Callum Clark and his captain giving Scarlets a chance to extend their lead. I can only assume Callum said something Mr Rolland didn’t like. Priestland makes a very good kick from near the halfway line to make the score 9:3 after 19 minutes.

A good run of play was to follow with Tiny, Ashton, Foden and Artymiev and others having a good run looked as though it ended in a ruck over the Scarlets try line but ends with Mr Rolland calling for a Scarlets scrum on their 5 metre line. Saints demolished this scrum (which bode well for the rest of the game) but Scarlets kept possession and, to their credit, ran the ball out of trouble.

The 2^nd 20 minutes saw a swing in the momentum of the game as Scarlets began to dominate, helped in some way by the officials missing some very illegal line outs from the hosts. Quite how Saints managed to steal a couple of these line outs I am not sure but they did. More scrums in this half were evenly matched as Scarlets seemed to get a grip with Tiny, Mooj , Dylan and the boys.

Scarlets were imposing the more pressure now and for the first time managed to get up to the Saints 5 metre line but nothing came from it and for the next few minutes Saints were generally on the back foot with possession being fought for in all parts of the park. Yet another illegal line out to Scarlets in the Saints 22 followed by some good pressure from the Scarlets back line and the first try of the game followed right in the corner. Priestland missed a tricky conversion and the score was14:3 after 34 minutes.

The resultant ruck from the restart saw a penalty to Saints and Myler duly slotted to bring the score back to 14:6 after 36 minutes. The last few minutes of the first half and the pressure all came from Scarlets.

Half Time 14:6

Saints came out with a bang in the 2^nd half and from the kick off Foden had a good break to get within 10 metres of the Scarlets line, the resultant ruck led to a powerful drive from the Saints pack and a melee ensued which crept over the Scarlets line. Mr Rolland called upon the TMO for a decision which went in favour of the home team (probably fair enough, I couldn’t call it from the video screen) and we had a scrum on the 5 metre line, Saints put in. Two scrums later and with a dominant pack, Tiny manages to stretch over the line and touch the ball down. Mr Rolland asks for a TMO decision again, and although the home support prefer the decision of a knock on, it was not to be. Saints try, Myler converts and its14:13 after 45 minutes.

It seems that Saints have taken the game by the scruff of the neck now as we appear to be camped in Scarlets half. The pressure led to some Scarlets errors and its not long before Myler maintains his 100% kicking record for the match and another penalty sees Saints take the lead for the first time in the match 14:16 after 50 minutes.

The lead didn’t last too long and I could hear Rhys Priestland saying “Whatever Myler can do, I can do better” and sure enough, from a tricky position, slotted another penalty to nudge Scarlets back into the lead again 17:16 after 52 minutes.

Well Myler accepted the challenge from Priestalnd like a slap around the face with a glove and after further pressure Saints were awarded a penalty just a couple of metres in Scarlets half, Myler is confident he can kick it and, despite the vociferous home support, kicked Saints into the lead again. Saints lead 17:19 after 55 minutes.

Pressure continues from Saints midfield with Manoa, Roger Wilson, Calum Clarke and George Pisi getting in the faces of all in front of them and its not long before a further penalty is awarded to Saints in kicking distance for Myler. Successfully taken it puts Saints further into the lead, 17:22 after 58 minutes.

Replacements start coming off the bench for both teams about now, amongst them the seemingly ever present Stephen Jones. PDJ comes on to replace Mujati who seemed to have a fairly quiet game today generally and with the new blood came an urgency about Scarlets game as they began to apply more pressure on Saints for the last 20 minutes of the match.

Daisy comes on for Sorenson, shortly followed by Waller and Hayward replacing Hartley and Tiny and Scarlets definitely have the upper hand now with ten minutes left to play. A break we do make into their 22 is lost and a brave break sees the Scarlets winger get back into Saints half to be eased into touch by Ben Foden. Scarlets continue to raise the tempo now with less than ten minutes to go and what followed was another great demonstration of Saints defensive skills. The last of the substitutions are made with both teams using up their benches. All of the play is within 10 metres of Saints line and I can’t see how Saints can keep them out.

Then it happened, we’ve seen it happen so many times against us, but it seemed that with all the pressure Scarlets were putting on our back line, they just didn’t expect Ben Foden to intercept a pass ten metres from his own line and run the length of the field and yet, that’s exactly what he did. Scarlets back line were, by this time, exhausted and Ben could not be caught, Ashton was in close pursuit just in case, but Ben didn’t need him and trotted over the line to place the ball down (no swallow dives here thank you very much). 79 minutes gone and Lamb, on for Myler a few minutes previous, converts the try. Mr Rolland blew the final whistle as soon as the touch judges flags were raised.

Final score 17:29.

 Ben Foden says

 Jim Mallinder Comments