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How the Scarlets reacted to first win on SA soil of URC era
By Simon Thomas
There was no disguising Dwayne Peel’s delight and pride as his Scarlets created history to keep their hopes of making the play-offs very much alive.
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Peel’s men claimed a famous 32-19 bonus point victory over the Emirates Lions in Johannesburg to move up to sixth in the table.
It was their first win on South African soil in the BKT URC era, with Wales full-back Blair Murray crossing twice, while No 8 Taine Plumtree and centre Johnny Williams also touched down.
They now have their destiny in their own hands with a trip to Durban to take on the Sharks coming up next Saturday to round off the regular season.
Head coach Peel said: “We are delighted with the win. “We created a bit of history because we haven’t won out in South Africa since the Sharks, Lions, Bulls and Stormers have been in the competition.
United Rugby Championship
P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Leinster
17
15
2
0
72
2
Bulls
17
13
4
0
63
3
Glasgow
17
11
6
0
59
4
Sharks
17
12
5
0
58
5
Stormers
17
9
8
0
50
6
Scarlets
17
9
7
1
48
7
Benetton
17
9
7
1
46
8
Munster
17
8
9
0
46
9
Cardiff Rugby
17
8
8
1
46
10
Edinburgh
17
7
9
1
44
11
Ospreys
17
7
9
1
38
12
Ulster
17
7
10
0
38
13
Lions
17
7
10
0
35
14
Connacht
17
5
12
0
35
15
Zebre
17
5
11
1
29
16
Dragons RFC
17
1
16
0
9
“We needed to come here and get a victory to keep our hopes of qualifying alive. I’m proud to be a Scarlet tonight and proud to be part of this group.”
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He continued: “We prepped well for this game.
“Obviously the players put a massive shift in, but the staff as well. They planned meticulously. I am really pleased.
“The big thing for us this season is we wanted to compete and we are doing it right up until the last game.
“It’s obviously not done yet. We move on to next week now. It will be a massive challenge again down in Durban, but we’ll make sure we are ready to go and see how many points we can get.”
Skipper Josh Macleod commented: “I asked the boys to leave everything out on the pitch and I think we did that and came out on the right side of the result. I am just very glad that we came here and did the job.”
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The flanker added: “I just want to say thank you very much to the fans. We could hear them throughout the whole game and it goes a long way. It’s a hell of an effort for them to travel all this way.
“I am just really grateful that we could get the result for them, especially. It’s Sharks next week and hopefully we just keep building.”
The Player of the Match award went to two-try Murray who said: “That was awesome. We came here knowing we needed to win to make the play-offs and it was a great effort from all the boys.
“It wasn’t just the 23 that played, but everyone that travelled and all the boys back home as well.
“They helped prepare us for this part of the season. It involved everyone, fans as well. It was awesome to see them here.
“The win over Leinster in the last round was massive for us and we just wanted to keep building on that momentum. We knew it was going to be tough. I am still trying to catch my breath now! It was a hard game, but the boys were unreal.”
Wales’ other play-off hopefuls Cardiff slipped down from fifth to ninth in the table as they lost 45-21 to the Bulls in Pretoria, while results elsewhere went against them.
But, like the Scarlets, they will go into next Friday’s game against Stormers in Cape Town with their fate still in their hands.
A victory would guarantee them a top eight finish, while a bonus point or two in defeat could yet be enough to get the job done.
Head coach Matt Sherratt said: “If we go back to day one, in terms of this season being about growth, we’ve doubled the games we’ve won.
“If we had said to any of our supporters or anyone at the club that we’d be going into the last game of the season needing to pick up a win or a point or two to be in the play-offs, I think people would have snatched your hand off.
“We will now take our best game to Cape Town, attack the Stormers and try and get Cardiff into the play-offs for the first time, which would be important for the players and the club.”
The Welsh visitors trailed 31-0 to the high-flying Bulls at half-time, but tries from Alex Mann, Teddy Williams and Gabriel Hamer-Webb took them tantalisingly close to a bonus point only for them to run out of time.
“The first half was very disappointing and things could have got pretty messy,” said Sherratt.
“I said to the players at the break we needed to get two things out of the second half. We needed to earn a bit of respect back and we were obviously trying to get four tries.
“I think we did the first. The boys showed a lot of courage and we stuck at it, but we just fell short with the four tries and didn’t quite get a point.
“I am proud of how we came back, but it took us too long to get up to speed.”
Sherratt added: “We are disappointed, but we were up against a very good team.
“I genuinely believe it’s the hardest away fixture in the league. It’s the toughest place to come in the competition. I think they’ve won 23 of their 25 games here. There’s the altitude, heat, travel, it’s a tough ask.”
Giving the players’ perspective, second row Josh McNally said: “Our message before the game was we didn’t want to leave wondering what we could have done. I think in the last 20 minutes, you saw what we could have done.
“But we just didn’t fire any shots in the first half and you give a quality side like the Bulls too much possession and too much momentum, it’s going to be a very hard game to come back from.
“We will look at this performance because it wasn’t good enough. We’ve got a big game next weekend now.”
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It is a massive massive win for Scarlets coupled with downing Leinster two weeks ago.
They are in 6th so need to lose 3 places on the final weekend now.
I believe that 3rd place in the table might mean a potential home country semi against Bulls, rather than a potential semi in Dublin should Leinster be still in the competition. Sharks would fancy a SA based semi and then a once off smash and grab job in Dublin. Having to beat Leinster in Dublin and then rise a week later to win a final would be a major order. Ask Bulls last year, after their great performance against Leinster was not backed up 7 days later. So Sharks are likely to be very motivated to beat Scarlets.
Munster-Benneton play each other so one of this will not pass out Scarlets leaving both Edinburgh and Cardiff as the remaining two needed to pass Scarlets.
Cardiff play Stormers who will finish in top 8 but might want to finish as high as possible for a more favourable draw. Edinburgh play at home to Ulster who are out and should prevail leaving Cardiff as the final team. Between Cardiff and Scarlets.
The Munster - Benneton match is knock out. Lose and you are out although a bonus point draw might see both through.
If Munster lose that would see only one Irish team qualify!