Scarlets vs Munster - Playoff battle heating up

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Written by Rugby Dreamer

The Scarlets had only lost once at home in the Rabo Direct Pro 12 this season. They had also lost the last 14 games in all competitions they had played in against the day’s opponents, Munster. Both facts were something for the local supporters, who had turned out in large numbers, to equally celebrate and despair.

Munster, often incorrectly perceived to be an aging side, were still trying to cope with the smart of being knocked out of the Heineken Cup by a fellow province. Could they then handle losing to a team that for the last five years they have had such a strangle hold on?

The match was set to be a nail biter, with both teams evenly matched at the injury ravaged end of the season, and both vying for a play-off spot.
The game began quietly enough, with the official of the day, Alain Rolland, making his presence felt, which was to set the tone for the rest of the match.

It took just over ten minutes for the first points to appear. Munster had been pressuring the Scarlets deep in their own 22, until a crunching tackle helped enforce a turnover. The Scarlets then ran a sublime length of the pitch try, with the ball going through the hands of at nine Scarlets players, to send wing Sean Lamont over in the corner.

This seemed to be the signal for the floodgates to open, as within a few minutes Munster had scored a try of their own, coming from a Scarlets error (to be a theme of the evening) from their lineout in their 22, to send Ryan crashing through some very weak defending.

Seventeen minutes on the clock and it was 7-7, with very little separating either side.

The rest of the first half, apart from one gleaming move from Munster that sent Zebo over (with the aid from the TMO), continued to be a turgid, stop-start affair. The scrums failed to function and with Munster playing as Munster do and smothering the breakdown, ignoring the need to release the tackled player, and the officials happy to let them. The Scarlets seemed incapable of helping themselves though, where even any half chances were snuffed out by their own unforced errors.

An exchange of penalties saw the first half end 10 – 17 to the visitors, although their lead was slightly overshadowed by Tommy O’Donnell having to be stretchered off the pitch, which looked to hopefully be a precautionary measure.

The second half saw an improvement from the home side, and with the visitors sticking to their spoiling game plan. With teams so evenly matched, in what was such a key encounter, were given no chance to express themselves in what was turning out to be an increasingly frustrating encounter. Munster offered little to nothing, whilst the Scarlets kept trying to apply pressure but to no avail.

It wasn’t until the 54th minute that the Scarlets notched more points on the board to make it 10 – 20.

A few minutes later, a brilliant angle cut by backrow Aaron Shingler, led to an excellent try, after the Scarlets had been doggedly trying to move up field. Priestland converted.

What followed were periods of Scarlets pressure that failed time and again through poor handling, poor control at the breakdown and poor kicking, to be converted into points. It was not until the 71st minute that they managed to level the scores to make it a nervous last ten minutes for the Scarlets faithful, who had remained all match in good voice, despite the exasperating nature of the game.

Could the Scarlets finally overcome their fierce rivals Munster and put themselves in with a chance of making the play-offs? Could Munster grind out yet another win to keep their play-off chance alive? Neither side had been spectacular, or allowed to be, in this match, yet the commitment and ferocity from both sides was clear to see.

Ten minutes of extreme Scarlets pressure in the end, with Munster doing their best to spoil every facet of play, led to no penalties nor even an attempt at a drop goal, and saw the match finishing as an incredibly unsatisfying draw. Neither team looked happy; the Scarlets fans for the first time fell silent.

Munster still limp on towards the end of the season with the prospect of silverware to play for. The Scarlets look to be ending another season just shy of the top four, again having to live with the label of being the “nearly” side, with no one but themselves to blame. The disconsolate look of apology full back Liam Williams flashed to the supporters in the North Stand as he applauded his thanks, said far more than any words could.

The biggest disappointment though was that despite some shining displays from Warren, Shingler, Zebo and Dineen, the game wasn’t allowed to flow. Two key aspects, the breakdown and the scrum, were not under the control of the match official, who showed remarkable lack of feeling towards the running of a game. Often after realising his mistake with one call, it appeared that Rolland would immediately award the next penalty to the previously wrongly penalised team, in the appearance of making amends, with calls at some times that left both sets of players, baffled. Whilst the result itself was a disappointment to the 10,741 supporters who had made their way to Parc Y Scarlets, it was the manner in which the game was allowed (or not allowed) to be played, that truly left such a frustrating feeling.

Full time score: 20 - 20

Attendance: 10,741

Man of the Match: Adam Warren

My Man of the Match: Aaron Shingler

Scarlets: Liam Williams, G North, A Warren, S Jones, S Lamont, R Priestland, G Davies, R Jones, M Rees capt, D Manu, S Timani, D Day, A Shingler, J Turnbull, B Morgan.

Replacements: T Knoyle for G Davies (61), S Gardner for R. Jones (74), E Phillips for M Rees (61), P John for Manu (65), K Murphy for Timani (55).
Munster: F Jones; L O'Dea; J Murphy; L Mafi; S Zebo; I Keatley; C Murray; D Kilcoyne; M Sherry; BJ Botha; M O'Driscoll; P O'Connell capt; D Ryan; T O'Donnell; P O'Mahony.

Replacements: I Dineen for Jones (65), T O'Leary for Murray (61), S Archer for Botha (71), D O'Callaghan for O'Driscoll (67), P Butler for O'Donnell (38).
Not Used: D Varley, W du Preez, S Deasy.
Att: 10,741

Referee: Alain Rolland (IRFU)

Assistant Referees: Gwyn Morris and David Jones (Both WRU)

Citing Commissioner: Jeff Mark (WRU)

TMO: Nigel Whitehouse (WRU)

http://v2journal.com/scarlets-v-munster.html

O'Mahoney is pure class. I think 8 might be his best position too...don't tell Rory_Gallagher though....

Nah, its too late now but thanks for the advise mate

Preistland cant even catch under no pressure now

Taxi for Priestland.

Penalty to Munster!

The scoreboard might turn over here.

Keatley breathes in and gets it straight.

10-20 to Munster.

Munster forwards are bullying the Scarlets.

Damn!

Brilliant kick from L.Williams and North was so close to setting up the try - support overran.

sheephead wrote:Fair play you must be moaning bar-stewards to still be moaning with the qualityof provincial set up you have

Indeed we are, there is a phrase "he could talk for Ireland" which would apply to every Irish person in existence. Fantastic tackle from Jones on North, he is good but not unstoppable.

Knoyle is coming on

Comedy of errors and grubbers as another Scarlets attack peters out.

Surely Biggar or Hook will start against the Barbarians and that's their chance to make the 10 jersey their own? We can't start RP when he's playing like this.

How the flip can North look like the best winger in the World for Wales but like a rookie who's out off his depth in the Rabo?

Well taken try but shockingly poor defending. Game on.

Beautiful by Shingler!

Runs like a centre, brilliant acceleration and a couple of steps to score.

15 - 20

Simple conversion to come

61min

Finally. A good welsh move. Shingles in.

Should be converted. 17-20 to Munster.

Munster scrum? Fairly sure that was a penalty to the Scarlets

Munster scrum? Fairly sure that was a penalty to the Scarlets

Scarlets don't seem to understand the rules at the breakdown.

Munsters attacking play is awful at times.

Munster attack again with all the finesse of an elephant holding a rapier.

Scarlets get the penalty from the scrum

Justice is done

rodders wrote:How the flip can North look like the best winger in the World for Wales but like a rookie who's out off his depth in the Rabo?

He doesn't look out of his depth. Plays more like a flanker with his work rate.

rodders wrote:Scarlets don't seem to understand the rules at the breakdown.

Munsters attacking play is awful all the time.

Fixed that for you.

So are they converting Rhodri to a TH or not?

Thomond

Scrum to Munster just outside their 22. With O'Leary on Scarlets must be feeling hopeful.

Johne Murphy is a hero.. the best average player in the world.

Same every week from Scarlets these days. Dropping the ball and just not very smart play in general.

Keatley kicks dead from a penalty

O'Gara must be crying.

And Keatley manages to outperform The Priestly One with N even worse penalty kick to touch that goes over the dead ball line. O'Gara must be hiding behind the sofa at this stage.

MOD, that guy is retiring too soon. Looks in great nick. Brilliant player.

Is it still 17 - 20?

Yes Billy.

Munster forwards are battering the Scarlets all over the field, the breakdown is a mess

O'Leary decides to help the Welsh scrum in getting the ball back.

Scarlets are going to score here.

finally rolland pings a munster player for not releasing the tackler!

Warren wins Scarlet's a penalty with a bit off pace into space from Jones pass.

Preistland converts

20 - 20

20 all RP

POM you muppet, no need to break early when their scrum is going backward at a rate of knots.

Priestland gets the equaliser. 20-20. Great kick, he may have been playing poor but he has bottle like ROG.

20-20

Ten minutes to go. Can Scarlets manage a victory against Munster finally?

Scarlets then lose the restart

20-20

Think Scarlets are gonna close this out now.

Clearly a penalty then, don't know what took Rolland so long

Preistland goes for distance, but misses touch.

If only Munster had O'Gara for a DG.

He gave the penalty, correct decision, Priestland did a Keatley on it though.

Munster brain dead in attack.

Penalty to Scarlets who miss touch.

Why can't Warren move to the Blues

The Scarlets have loads of good centres.

Thomond wrote:He gave the penalty, correct decision, Priestland did a Keatley on it though.

not that bad

Still made ground

S.Jones is playing very well as an extra distributor in the midfield

scarlets scrum gets the nudge on then it goes down but rolland resets it...