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Scarlets now wait on Munster as win over Dragons puts them in semi-final qualification spot

By PA
(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Scarlets moved into second place in Conference B of the Guinness PRO14 after a rousing second-half performance saw them overwhelm the Dragons 41-20 at Rodney Parade and leave them heading for a semi-final assignment at Leinster next weekend if Munster fail to get a result versus Connacht on Sunday. 

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Prop Samson Lee, wings Steff Evans and Johnny McNicholl, flanker James Davies and replacements Tom Rogers and Dane Blacker all crossed the line in an impressive display by the visitors, while Dan Jones booted four conversions and a penalty.

Wing Jared Rosser, flanker Taine Basham and centre Adam Warren grabbed the Dragons’ tries, with fly-half Sam Davies kicking a penalty and conversion, but they came up short after a promising start.

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RugbyPass brings you Game Day, the behind the scenes documentary on the Guinness PRO14 final in 2018 between Leinster and Scarlets

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RugbyPass brings you Game Day, the behind the scenes documentary on the Guinness PRO14 final in 2018 between Leinster and Scarlets

An entertaining opening half saw the lead change hands three times and Scarlets seemed ready to pull away before the home team fought back to within a few points. Davies put the Dragons ahead with a penalty after 13 minutes but a frantic eight-minute spell saw the scores change from 3-0 to a 14-10 lead for the visitors.

The Scarlets, with Wales hooker Ken Owens playing his 250th match to become only the second player to reach that milestone for the West Wales team in the regional era, had chances to score and put Jake Ball through only for play to be called back by referee Craig Evans.

However, a big attacking lineout and drive from the visitors left Lee with space to go over from a couple of metres for a converted try. The Dragons hit back when pressure inside the 22 saw the ball pushed left and brought a two-on-one, with Basham setting up Rosser for a simple touchdown that Davies converted.

Yet the Scarlets struck again as a big drive in the home 22 allowed lively scrum-half Kieran Hardy the chance to slip the ball to Davies, who shipped it to Evans for the touch down. With Jones adding the extras and Davies being driven over by his pack for a third Scarlets try, it was going well for the visitors.

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However, in the last seconds of the half, Basham had the ball in a driving maul to go over as the Dragons closed the gap to 19-15. After home No8 Harrison Keddie was sin-binned for a ruck offence, Sione Kalamafoni thought he had scored for the Scarlets when diving over a pile of bodies to touch down only for the TMO to rule it out.

But the bonus point try did come before the hour when a grubber kick to the home danger zone saw Wales cap McNicholl pounce, with Jones again converting. A simple Jones penalty and two more Scarlets tries, from Rogers and Blacker, sealed the result before Warren got a consolation corner try for the Dragons two minutes from time.

 

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f
fl 1 hour ago
‘Props are awesome…so why don’t they win prizes?’

“The reason most props don’t last the whole game is that they expend proportionally more effort than players outside the front row. Should they be penalised for that?”

No, they don’t last the whole game because they are less fit than players outside the front row. I’d be interested to know if you’d apply this logic to other positions; do PSDT and Itoje regularly last longer than other players in their positions because they put in less effort?

None of this is about “penalising” props, its about being realistic about their impact on a game.


“While scrums are a small part of the game in terms of time spent in them, they have disproportionate impact. Dominant scrums win games; feeble ones lose them.”

Strength at the breakdown wins games. Good kicking wins games. Good handling wins games. Strong defence wins games. Good lineouts win games. Ultimately, I think that of all these things, the scrum is probably the least important, because it demonstrably doesn’t correlate very well with winning games. I don’t think Rugbypass will allow me to link articles, but if you google “HG Rugby Crowning the Best Scrum in Club Rugby” you’ll get a pretty convincing analysis that ranks Toulouse and Bordeaux outside of the 10 best club sides in the scrum - and ranks Leinster outside of the top 30.


“Or there’s Joe Marler’s epic performance in the Bristol v Quins 2021 Premiership Semi-Final, in which he finally left the pitch 15 minutes into extra time having signed off with a try saving tackle.”

Yeah - that’s a good example actually, but it kind of disproves your point. Marler played 95 minutes, which is unheard of for a prop.


“Maybe we need a dedicated Hall of Fame with entry only for props, and voted for only by props.”

Well we have the World Rugby XV of the year. Its only been going for a few years, but in time it’ll be a pretty good record of who are perceived as best props - although the lack of interest most people have in scrums means that perception of who the best props are doesn’t always match reality (e.g. Tadgh Furlong was great in 2018 - but was he really the best tighthead in the world in 2021, 2022, & 2023?).

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