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

You wannabe Munster fangirl dreamer

shhh now Billy, that's supposed to be a secret!

Many Scarlets fans blamed Wayne Barnes for their defeat to Brive last week as well...

Its no secret girl, you have been showing the signs for years now

I blame Wallace and those pics of him from the Lions tour! It's enough to turn any girls head

A pervert as well i see

A little off topic (I'm not even going to touch on the match )

I was talking to a guy who worked in the Scarlets shop before the game and he said Iestyn had been around the stadium earlier that day, and this guy had spoken to him quite a bit recently. He said Iestyn was fine and wouldn't be retiring this summer, and he didn't see why Iestyn wouldn't be back for next season.

Good news if it's true

Thats good to hear Smirnoff

ah that would be completely brilliant news Priest!

Smirnoffpriest wrote:A little off topic (I'm not even going to touch on the match )

I was talking to a guy who worked in the Scarlets shop before the game and he said Iestyn had been around the stadium earlier that day, and this guy had spoken to him quite a bit recently. He said Iestyn was fine and wouldn't be retiring this summer, and he didn't see why Iestyn wouldn't be back for next season.

Good news if it's true

Also I saw Rhys Thomas walking around (with Stodds, and a few others) and he looked his normal cheeky grin self.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Smirnoffpriest wrote:A little off topic (I'm not even going to touch on the match )

I was talking to a guy who worked in the Scarlets shop before the game and he said Iestyn had been around the stadium earlier that day, and this guy had spoken to him quite a bit recently. He said Iestyn was fine and wouldn't be retiring this summer, and he didn't see why Iestyn wouldn't be back for next season.

Good news if it's true

Also I saw Rhys Thomas walking around (with Stodds, and a few others) and he looked his normal cheeky grin self.

That's great news as well SS - if he's just walking around it must mean he's recovered from his op very well. I'm really hoping that he can recover well enough to do some coaching at some level for a team in the area and maybe some more at the least.