Scarlets v Treviso, Thursday 23.2.12

Scarlets head into this match, only 6 points off a play off spot and they badly need to get a win here, after the battling LBP they claimed away to Leinster last week.

Scarlets team:

Dan Newton, Lee Williams, Gareth Maule, Adam Warren, Andy Fenby, Aled Thomas, Gareth Davies

Phil John, Emyr Phillips, Deacon Manu, Dom Day, Damien Welch, Josh Turnbull, Johnathan Edwards, Kieran Murphy

Reps:

Craig Hawkins, Rhodri Jones, Peter Edwards, Lou Reed, Aaron Shingler, Liam Davies, Nick Reynolds, Liam Williams

Treviso team:

15 Ludovico Nitoglia 14 Benjamin De Jager 13 Tommaso Iannone 12 Andrea Pratichetti 11 Brendan Williams 10 Willem De Waal 9 Simon Picone 8 Marco Filippucci 7 Gonzalo Padrò 6 Manoa Vosawai 5 Valerio Bernabò 4 Enrico Pavanello 3 Pedro Di Santo 2 Franco Sbaraglini (capitano) 1 Ignacio Fernandez Rouyet

Reps:

16 Enrico Ceccato 17 Augusto Allori 18 Carlo Fazzari 19 Benjamin Vermaak 20 Diego Vidal 21 Ezio Galon 22 Gonzalo Garcia 23 Alberto Di Bernardo


Scarlets have four returning internationals on the bench with Liam Williams, Lou Reed, Aaron Shingler and Rhodri Jones. Stephen Jones remains with the Wales squad over doubts on James Hook's fitness.

Treviso are without 13 players due to international call ups but they do see the return of Brendan Williams on the wing who could be a key player for them.

Looking at the teams, I firmly believe Scarlets should get the win (if not, then our play off chances will take a huge blow). It would be great to see if we could get a TBP also. 4 points minimum from this match for me, but Treviso do worry me despite all their call ups. They've had a very solid season so far and will be looking to build on that themselves.

Looks a decent side as long as Fenby can pull his socks up to at least a decent level and Edwards can stop giving pens away.

Do you how how long McCusker is out dreamer? Am suprised Shingler isn't in for Edwards (though I suppose he hasn't spent much time with the team)

Am hopeful but it's going to be a big game that we need to win

As a correction Scarlets are 6 points of of a play off place not 4

3rd Munster 43
4th Glasgow 41
5th Cardiff 39
6th Ulster 37
7th Scarlets 35

Both Scarlets and Ulster have a great chance to go up the table as both Glasgow and Cardiff have some tricky ties ahead. Scarlets and Ulster by comparison have two home games on the bounce

bah, wishful thinking on my part then geoff, shall amend it now.....

Also think both us and Ulster need to factor in that the Blues have a game in hand over us, so they're always going to have that advantage. Munster have a game in hand as well.

Going to be tough for anyone below 5th to get into the play offs now imo. (although it would help us if the Scarlets could do the double over the Blues again )

Priest - not heard anything on McCusker sorry, will post as soon as I find out any info though. Fingers crossed he isn't out for too long.

Thats not a bad looking side all things considered, but then again I did say that for the last two weeks. If we have any realistic dreams of getting to the play-offs we need to target a winning bonus point tomorrow night, however I would settle for a win, as we need to start building some momentum to take us into the LV= SF and the Amlins QF.

Definitely SS.

Nige has been quoted saying that for us to have a realistic chance of making the play offs, we have to win 6 out of our 7 remaining games. That's a tough ask for any team.

Will be nice if we can get a win though, and build up confidence again.

Treviso (home) - should be a win, not being disrespectful, but the Italian sides should always be a win when your home.

Connacht (away) - most likely a loss

Blues (away) - we can win there, but I guess it depend on this 'Arms Park' factor

Edinburgh (away) - their legaue form seems a bit touch and go, however they have done well in the HC, so who knows.

Aironi (away) - potential bananna skin

Munster (home) - depends if they have done in the HC, and if they have a home semi nailed down yet.

Blues (home) - I think a repeat of last season could be possible.

I honestly think that we sould be doing well to pick up more than four wins out of that lot. But we seem to be capable of doing well once we get our heads up and a bit of confidence within the squad, so fingers crossed.

Think is we've got this horrible mental block against Munster. We should beat them at home, but we never seem to manage it.

Agree that we should be looking at more than 4 wins form that lot. They're all potential banana skins though. That's the weird thing about this league, there doesn't really seem to be all that many "guaranteed" wins anymore. Makes sure the teams are kept on their toes I guess.

(Also I think all Blues home derby games are to be played at CCS, so no Arms Park factor )

Dreamer you know what they say. . . .15th time lucky.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

Blues (away) - we can win there, but I guess it depend on this 'Arms Park' factor

It certainly will.
Hope it is played at the Arms Park because the place will be rammed.

ah yes, that well coined phrase Stag....


Connacht away is a bug bear of mine as well. Can't remember the last time we managed to win that one.

Points wise I would ideally like us to get a miminum of 4, 1, 4, 1, 4, 4, 4. 22 points there could take us up to 57. Also the possibilty of some TBP (although looking at our attacking this season it's not likely).

A tough tough end to the season in the Pro12.

I would say that Scarlets should aim to win every match and a very minimum of 5 wins.

we always aim to win every match Stag! (also I've already put us down for the minimum of 5 wins )

Tis just whether we have the brains to do so or not. I mean the last 10 seconds against Leinster show the sort of brain farts we are capable of.

rugbydreamer wrote:we always aim to win every match Stag!

ARe you sure we aimed to win in Sale or Glasgow? It didn't look like it to me

I didn't see the Sale game, but Glasgow, yes I think we did go to win. I lost count of the times we forced our way into their 22 only to knock the blydi ball on such a frustrating performance.

I hate looking at games like those in the run in thinking we should win, as with Scarlets we're just as likely to do something horrendous like we did at Leinster and loose when it's ours to win, or just not turn up like at Glasgow. - If we'd won those two games we'd have been either 4th or 5th now and everything would have been much easier.

Instead we've got either hard games or games we can really slip up with (or both). It ain't going to be pretty - I'm just glad we ain't got the Dragons breathing down our necks.

Smirnoffpriest wrote:I hate looking at games like those in the run in thinking we should win, as with Scarlets we're just as likely to do something horrendous like we did at Leinster and loose when it's ours to win, or just not turn up like at Glasgow. - If we'd won those two games we'd have been either 4th or 5th now and everything would have been much easier.

Instead we've got either hard games or games we can really slip up with (or both). It ain't going to be pretty - I'm just glad we ain't got the Dragons breathing down our necks.

Not wanting to be the one who puts a downer on things, but the Dragons are closer to us than you might think. IF we slip up a twice and they don't they are right on our rumps. That said I guess this shows how tight the league is getting on moment you are on the verge of glory the next your fighting to retain you spot at the top table.

They've got a game in hand over us as well, don't they?

I'd forgotten how nervous the end of the season can get!

rugbydreamer wrote:They've got a game in hand over us as well, don't they?

I'd forgotten how nervous the end of the season can get!

I remember last season people around us saying one week, 'oh well a season in the Amlin next year', and then 'Oh cack we missed out of the play-offs by one bleeding kick'. So I guess it can really be edge of the seat stuff either way. THat said you got to love it.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:They've got a game in hand over us as well, don't they?

I'd forgotten how nervous the end of the season can get!

I remember last season people around us saying one week, 'oh well a season in the Amlin next year', and then 'Oh cack we missed out of the play-offs by one bleeding kick'. So I guess it can really be edge of the seat stuff either way. THat said you got to love it.

I'm still getting over that SS - am so bleeding frustrated. And this year I thought it'd be better as I figured out of the fowards we'd have Rees, Turnbull and Morgan called up but would have Owens, Shingler and McCusker to cover (as well as youngsters Murphy and Gilbert who have suprised me) - but Turnbull, McCucker and Rees have been injured most of the season and Owens and Shingler have been called up instead.
And the same in the backs with Stodds being out Liam W has been called up instead.

So we've been struggling in the league with a constantly revolving and changing squad which hasn't been able to build up any fluidity

Anyone else watching the game? I couldnt believe it when Treviso went 14-0 up early on!
Luckily the Scarlets have woken up now and are back at 14-17 at half time, hopefully they will pull themselves out of this mess they have gotten themselves into.

Yes. Liam Williams is a class act.

It was an awful start - some decent plays led to 3 tries.but were lucky to b in this and a thomas is playin awful. Tho as i say that he kicks his 1st pen

Treviso are playing far too conservative. I have to say watching this game gets me so irate at the refereeing of Clancy last week (or rather the inconsistency between refs). I have seen 3 games since then and not one ref has pinged the attacking team for lying on top of each attacking ruck.

Madness by garcia!lucky wasnt a red

Idiotic from garcia. I actually thought the number 8 jumped in the air initially as i couldnt believe Garcia would be that blatant but by God he was.

Good call for the yellow only there.

http://s4c.tv/clic/e_live.shtml

Link there if anyone is interested.

24-17 to the Scarlets at the moment.

Glas a du wrote:Good call for the yellow only there.

Dont know Glas. Seemed pretty similar to the Warburton one in that he took him up and dropped him.

more like chucked him over his shoulder, stand, twas a weird one anyways.

Oh balls, Shings in the bin now too.

Good spot by the ref there too. Not sure about the yellow but i suppose it is cynical.

Agreed Dreamer. i am thinking regarding the specific wording in the laws.

I think it was coz the ref had literally just warned us stand that Shings got the yellow. Can't argue with it.

And ah yeah, get you now on the wording. yellow I think is about right though.

It looked bad in slow motion. But, Murphy was in a ruck standing still. His legs went everywhere, but his head and body were always safe(ish). Yellow.

great pressure from Sanjay there. Love him.

This game is a bit of a mess, the scarlets must go for the bonus point and stop kicking.

rugbydreamer wrote:more like chucked him over his shoulder, stand, twas a weird one anyways.

Oh balls, Shings in the bin now too.

Hang on Missy!?

Shouldn't you be at Parc Y Scarlets?
Skiving off from your beloved Scarlets?

Great try from L Davies

try... 34-20 now, game set and match to the Turks.

Well done the Scarlets. Didnt panic at all and just kept making Treviso work and got their rewards.

Liam Davies!!! TBP!!!

Never would have thought we could get that after the disastrous start! (diolch again Glas for the text updates )

AlynDavies wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:more like chucked him over his shoulder, stand, twas a weird one anyways.

Oh balls, Shings in the bin now too.

Hang on Missy!?

Shouldn't you be at Parc Y Scarlets?
Skiving off from your beloved Scarlets?

1. didn't finish work early enough to get a train there
2. there wouldn't be a train running late enough for me to get back home
3. I had a Welsh class to go to this evening.

So nope, no trip to Y Parc for me, am starting to get withdrawel symptoms

I never understood why the Ospreys let Davies go, he was not picked for the HC after being MOTM! Hope he stays with the scarlets.

attitude problem alun, tis also why the Scarlets let him go in the first place. He's taking his 2nd chance very well now though it seems

Great comeback 34-6 points scord after the 1st 10mins

looks good when you put it like that.

So relieved we got the 5 points, we really had to get it.

I hope we keep liam davies as hes been very good for us

Dreamer:

I hope he stays and get's his head down, a good strong scrum half Knoyle may have a problem getting back into the team for the big games!

alun: definitely. will be intersting to see though if he does enough to get offered a longer contract, he's only with us short term, and we already have knoyle, davies and williams on our books.

We seem to have lots of good scrum halves in Wales and the Dragons buy in Bedford also the Ospreys bring in a Samoan, mad!