Scarlets scrapped by Chiefs.

Scarlets 17 - 22 Exeter Chiefs.

When unbelieving Irish fans stood dumbstruck in the bedpan on the final whistle of this year's six nations clash with Wales, it was games like this that informed their incredulity. The Welsh are useless in the Heineken Cup, their game management is abysmal. How have they beaten us for three games running, we are the Kings of the toughest Club competition in the Northern Hemisphere if not the World!

And, honestly, can any Scarlet fan blame them? The heroes that day were Priestland, North and Davies, two of whom were on the field today. Yet a more different level of attainment is barely capable of being imagined.

Priestland limped into and out of the match, literally and figuratively. Davies at least as captain was prepared to do his share of carrying, but another Grand Slam hero Scott Williams had a game to forget, butchering two of very few Scarlets backline attacks.

Exeter are tidy, efficient, determined. They didn't do anything spectacular, they barely did anything at all, but won.

They did score a try. Substantial Exeter full back Luke Arscott was running up a blind alley, comfortably into the arms of Liam Williams. For some inexplicable reason Williams left him go and turned his attention outside to the next man, who was already covered by his captain. Arscott still had the ball and was clear. An exquisite offload from the tackle and scrum half Haydn Thomas was under the sticks.

The Scarlets were given a dubious penalty try after a period of sustained pressure in the second half.

The Scarlets had four clear cut chances to punish Exeter. Fenby fumbled when they had an overlap, Scott Williams wasted another by passing to the last Exeter defender, and threw a horrible forward pass to Liam Williams when he should have put him clear. When the Scarlets had dragged themselves to within five points at 22-17 with minutes left they created another overlap. Kieran Murphy ignored his backs, took the ball into the tackle and got penalised. A very frustrating game for the Scarlets was over.

This game was unlikely to have any impact on this pool, and it was only ever pride at stake, but forgive me, as a Scarlets fan, pride is often all that we have to play for, that doesn't make creating very little and wasting what you create any easier to bear.

The Scarlets faithful now face the daunting trek to Sandy Park for the return leg next week.

Attendance 7,000

Scarlets
Newton, Williams, Davies, Williams, Fenby, Priestland, A Davies, John, Rees, Lee, Earle, Kelly, Shingler, Edwards (c) Murphy.

Exeter Chiefs
Arscott, Nowell, Naqelevuke, Shoemark, Jess, Steenson, Thomas, Sturgess, Alcott, Tui, Hayes (c) Hanks, Mumm, Scaysbrook, Baxter.

https://www.606v2.com/t38257-scarlets-scrapped-by-chiefs#1728365

I'm a neutral but to me its not a surprise that the Welsh don't do well in Europe, their national team is good enough to be ranked in the extreme lower half of the top 10 but every so often the stars align and the mediocrisy is replaced by a grandslam.

Their club sides don't have the skill levels or high class foreign signings of the Irish or the do or die attitude of the prem teams so they will always struggle to compete.

Does it matter though? They still win a grandslam every few years and play some brilliant rugby at Int level. There is more to rugby then Europe. I don't think they do too badly in the Rank either?

Dreadful result for the Scarlets, how many of those Exeter players would get into the Scarlets 15, two, three?

Injuries and not having their squad together until a few days before the game will not have helped, but this is still a shocking result! Did they not take Exeter seriously, leaving out Knoyle and particularly Adrianse and Snyman just didn't make sense, what's the point of having expensive overseas recruits if you don't play them?

Pride will be at stake next week, but Exeter will be confident of repeating the treatment at Sandy Park.

http://v2journal.com/scarlets-scrapped-by-chiefs.html

Do you think they had written the HC off Sea?

A few players in the Scarlets team yesterday are below European level rugby. What did they expect, a walkover? Exeter are a good team and were taken lightly. Some of the top players didn't have a good game either. Simply rubbish.

Exeter Chiefs
Arscott, Nowell Comacho, Naqelevuki, Shoemark, Jess, Steenson, Thomas, Sturgess, Alcott, Tui, Hayes (c), Hanks Welch, Mumm Johnson, Scaysbrook, Baxter.

Glas a du wrote:Do you think they had written the HC off Sea?

No, I think they underestimated Exeter, or over estimated themselves? Its a shame because they have been looking quite good recently, but after yesterday's result and injuries, it's going to be a long tough season for Easterby.

Seagultaf wrote:Dreadful result for the Scarlets, how many of those Exeter players would get into the Scarlets 15, two, three?

Injuries and not having their squad together until a few days before the game will not have helped, but this is still a shocking result! Did they not take Exeter seriously, leaving out Knoyle and particularly Adrianse and Snyman just didn't make sense, what's the point of having expensive overseas recruits if you don't play them?

Pride will be at stake next week, but Exeter will be confident of repeating the treatment at Sandy Park.

Taf, take off your eye-patch. On yesterday's showing, far more than you'd give credit to

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Seagultaf wrote:Dreadful result for the Scarlets, how many of those Exeter players would get into the Scarlets 15, two, three?

Injuries and not having their squad together until a few days before the game will not have helped, but this is still a shocking result! Did they not take Exeter seriously, leaving out Knoyle and particularly Adrianse and Snyman just didn't make sense, what's the point of having expensive overseas recruits if you don't play them?

Pride will be at stake next week, but Exeter will be confident of repeating the treatment at Sandy Park.

Taf, take off your eye-patch. On yesterday's showing, far more than you'd give credit to

On yesterday's showing I totally agree with you, but the Scarlets have 12 players in the Welsh squad. On paper they should have won and won comfortably. I take nothing away from Exeter's performance, but that performance from the Scarlets was unacceptable.

Shouldn't this be 'scalped'? Or am I missing something?

For some inexplicable reason Williams left him go and turned his attention outside to the next man,

should be 'let'?

Cyril on 606v2 wrote:Shouldn't this be 'scalped'? Or am I missing something?

Didn't think that was politically correct...

Linebreaker wrote:For some inexplicable reason Williams left him go and turned his attention outside to the next man,

should be 'let'?

Maybe?

In Wales we say left go, OK?

Seagultaf wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Seagultaf wrote:Dreadful result for the Scarlets, how many of those Exeter players would get into the Scarlets 15, two, three?

Injuries and not having their squad together until a few days before the game will not have helped, but this is still a shocking result! Did they not take Exeter seriously, leaving out Knoyle and particularly Adrianse and Snyman just didn't make sense, what's the point of having expensive overseas recruits if you don't play them?

Pride will be at stake next week, but Exeter will be confident of repeating the treatment at Sandy Park.

Taf, take off your eye-patch. On yesterday's showing, far more than you'd give credit to

On yesterday's showing I totally agree with you, but the Scarlets have 12 players in the Welsh squad. On paper they should have won and won comfortably. I take nothing away from Exeter's performance, but that performance from the Scarlets was unacceptable.

Whilst it's generally considered that Exeter are greater than the sum of their parts, there were still 6 full internationals in the matchday 23 on Saturday - 2 Argentines and 1 each from Oz, England, Ireland and Fiji. As for the rest, there's no accounting for the myopia of some national selectors.

Glas a du wrote:

Linebreaker wrote:For some inexplicable reason Williams left him go and turned his attention outside to the next man,

should be 'let'?

Maybe?

In Wales we say left go, OK?

+1 Yes we do!

Dubbelyew L Overate wrote:

Seagultaf wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Seagultaf wrote:Dreadful result for the Scarlets, how many of those Exeter players would get into the Scarlets 15, two, three?

Injuries and not having their squad together until a few days before the game will not have helped, but this is still a shocking result! Did they not take Exeter seriously, leaving out Knoyle and particularly Adrianse and Snyman just didn't make sense, what's the point of having expensive overseas recruits if you don't play them?

Pride will be at stake next week, but Exeter will be confident of repeating the treatment at Sandy Park.

Taf, take off your eye-patch. On yesterday's showing, far more than you'd give credit to

On yesterday's showing I totally agree with you, but the Scarlets have 12 players in the Welsh squad. On paper they should have won and won comfortably. I take nothing away from Exeter's performance, but that performance from the Scarlets was unacceptable.

Whilst it's generally considered that Exeter are greater than the sum of their parts, there were still 6 full internationals in the matchday 23 on Saturday - 2 Argentines and 1 each from Oz, England, Ireland and Fiji. As for the rest, there's no accounting for the myopia of some national selectors.

Good answer.

It was an unacceptable performance, irrespective of the international context, but it seemed clear Easterby wasn't at all fussed by the loss.

Will we now roll over in the last three games? I blydi hope not.

I hope not either. Would love to see a win over Clermont. Scarlets can beat Exeter next week if they change their attitude to rugby.

Preparation is a big part of rugby, why should it be a surprise that it takes a game or two for a side getting its internationals back to get back to speed?

The myopia of the WRU astounds me. The regions need to be competitive in the Heineken Cup to develop. Their slow death is your national teams slow death. A one-off international isn't worth undermining any remaining hopes of doing well in this tournament.