Champions Cup Pool 3: Scarlets v Glasgow Warriors, 19 December

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Scarlets v Glasgow Warriors
Saturday 19 December 2015
KO: 19:45
Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli

Live on BT Sport / beIN Sports

Referee Pascal Gauzere (France)
Touch Judge 1 Maxime Chalon (France)
Touch Judge 2 Jean-Luc Rebollal (France)
Fourth Official Stuart Kibble (Wales)
TMO Bruno Bessot (France)
Assessor Michael Carroll (Ireland)
Citing Commissioner Mike Rafter (England)

A. European Head to Head

5 Played 5
4 Wins 1
0 Losses 4
0 Draws 0
152 Points 114

B. Recent Form

Sat 12 December 2015
Glasgow Warriors 43 - 6 Scarlets

Sat 5 September 2015
Glasgow Warriors 10 - 16 Scarlets

Fri 9 January 2015
Glasgow Warriors 22 - 7 Scarlets

Fri 21 November 2014
Scarlets 19 - 9 Glasgow Warriors

C. Teams

Scarlets

Michael Collins; Steffan Evans, Gareth Owen, Hadleigh Parkes, DTH van der Merwe; Aled Thomas, Gareth Davies; Rob Evans, Emyr Phillips (capt), Samson Lee, Jake Ball, Maselino Paulino, Lewis Rawlins, Jack Condy, Morgan Allen.

Replacements: Ken Owens, Wyn Jones, Rhodri Jones, George Earle, Tom Price, Aled Davies, Steve Shingler, Harry Robinson.

Glasgow Warriors

15. Tommy Seymour
14. Taqele Naiyaravoro
13. Mark Bennett
12. Alex Dunbar
11. Sean Lamont
10. Finn Russell
9. Mike Blair

1. Alex Allan
2. Fraser Brown
3. Sila Puafisi
4. Leone Nakarawa
5. Jonny Gray (Captain)
6. Rob Harley
7. Simone Favaro
8. Josh Strauss

Replacements:

16. Shalva Mamukashvili
17. Gordon Reid
18. Zander Fagerson
19. Tim Swinson
20. Ryan Wilson
21. Grayson Hart
22. Duncan Weir
23. Lee Jones

Can refs be cited for their decisions?

Glasgow deciding to be adventurous and just play with 12 players in Position.

It's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for them!

Channeling Kevin Keegan, I would just love if Glasgow hold out for the two dubious yellows. Even better if they score some points.

That's one yellow down.

But a penalty given to Scarlets anyway with their prop's nose in the dirt.

9-6.

Good thing their kicker has been mince

Come on Glasgow. Hopefully you can beat this lovely hard-working team of fine players from the Welsh region of Llanelli Scarlets.*

*PC version

The ref needs to put this game out of its misery.

One more scrum Glasgae.

Put the boot in!

Yes!!

Well done Glasgow. Fully deserved.

And breath....

Great for Glasgow to get the win - wasn't pretty but keeps them in it.

Shame the weather was so bad.

Take it the Scarlet player who kicked the ball away at the end will be cleaning all the teams boots with his toothbrush tonight.

I saw the last half hour of that. Tense but hardly exciting stuff. Great Glasgow defence I suppose the highlight of the game. Good win for Glasgow

TJ wrote:I saw the last half hour of that.  Tense but hardly exciting stuff.   Great Glasgow defence I suppose the highlight of the game.  Good win for Glasgow

Brilliant win by Glasgow despite being cut down to 13 players.

Congrats Glasgow. Unlucky Scarlets. Sounded like a stinker.

Must say I'm quite concerned though. Remember when they changed the Heineken Cup because there were too many sh*t Pro12 sides in it (apparently). What will they do now that we're worse than in the Heineken? How long til all Pro12 sides are kicked out and they have an Anglo-French league instead???

On the Favaro yellow - yes he was committed - but to a shoulder charge not a tackle nor a chargedown. Yellow certainly not ridiculous if maybe a bit harsh. You can't just aim to flatten the 10.

Biggest question from tonight, why is Laidlaw doing punditry?

TJ wrote:On the Favaro yellow - yes he was committed - but to a shoulder charge not a tackle nor a chargedown.  Yellow certainly not ridiculous if maybe a bit harsh.  You can't just aim to flatten the 10.  

You always side with the refs! It was very soft IMO - it looked do much worse in slow mo. The ref said it was a yellow because it was late - of course it looks late in slow motion!

RDW_Scotland wrote:

TJ wrote:On the Favaro yellow - yes he was committed - but to a shoulder charge not a tackle nor a chargedown.  Yellow certainly not ridiculous if maybe a bit harsh.  You can't just aim to flatten the 10.  

You always side with the refs! It was very soft IMO - it looked do much worse in slow mo. The ref said it was a yellow because it was late - of course it looks late in slow motion!

Completely disagree it didn't even look late in slo-mo. He went for a ball block with arms outstretched.

It certainly was not late in that sense - but the way he collided with the 10 was reckless. Ref also said "shoulder". If he had hit him arms outstretched it would have been fine.

Thats what I think put him at risk of getting a yellow / What the ref saw. That and the crowd noise

I don't think it should have been yellow- but I can see why. It wouldn't have been a yellow at Scotstoun

Meh, sounds like it was a turd game. I take it Glasgow fans are confident of getting plenty of points against Saints and Racing?

Looks like a mudbath in a quagmire played in the sort of weather you find in a Roland Emmerich natural disaster movie.

Just delighted to get the win and (knock on head) no injuries. Glad to see our scrum settled in the end.

I hope Glasgow can go and win this pool now, but reality indicates that Racing will top it, so a best runner up and progression to the KO stages will do. Glasgow can beat Northampton if they improve, and hopefully Scarlets do you a favour by beating them when they play each other at Llanelli!

George Carlin wrote:Looks like a mudbath in a quagmire played in the sort of weather you find in a Roland Emmerich natural disaster movie.

Just delighted to get the win and (knock on head) no injuries. Glad to see our scrum settled in the end.

Not sure about the 'no injuries' bit - both Blair and Grey went off with head knocks, and Dunbar was hobbling at the end, although I think he brushed it off in the post-match interview.

demosthenes wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Looks like a mudbath in a quagmire played in the sort of weather you find in a Roland Emmerich natural disaster movie.

Just delighted to get the win and (knock on head) no injuries. Glad to see our scrum settled in the end.

Not sure about the 'no injuries' bit - both Blair and Grey went off with head knocks, and Dunbar was hobbling at the end, although I think he brushed it off in the post-match interview.

I think for the good of their health both Gray and Blair should be given this weekend off, even if they don't show any concussion symptoms

In fact, Nakarawa, Big T and Strauss were looking groggy too - I wouldn't risk them either!

RDW_Scotland wrote:

demosthenes wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Looks like a mudbath in a quagmire played in the sort of weather you find in a Roland Emmerich natural disaster movie.

Just delighted to get the win and (knock on head) no injuries. Glad to see our scrum settled in the end.

Not sure about the 'no injuries' bit - both Blair and Grey went off with head knocks, and Dunbar was hobbling at the end, although I think he brushed it off in the post-match interview.

I think for the good of their health both Gray and Blair should be given this weekend off, even if they don't show any concussion symptoms

In fact, Nakarawa, Big T and Strauss were looking groggy too - I wouldn't risk them either!

Ah, you're all heart. Will get the 1872 thread up shortly.

Well any time you win 13 against 15, you aught to be pretty pleased.

I will swallow the Lamont yellow, but Favaro was definitely committed to the charge down, both arms up in the air. That was pretty harsh I thought.

So a great defensive shift from Glasgow, even if the weather killed off much chance of a game breaking out. It was important to back up the win this week and Scarlets were certainly up for the game.

Going to have to scrum better though from here on in!

BigGee wrote: but Favaro was definitely committed to the charge down, both arms up in the air.!

That doesn't matter though. He completely cleaned the player out, recklessley. He was going for the charge down but also has a responsibility not to smack the player in the chops with his arms. It was the right decision. Well played Glasgow though, deserved the win.

mikey_dragon wrote:I hope Glasgow can go and win this pool now, but reality indicates that Racing will top it, so a best runner up and progression to the KO stages will do. Glasgow can beat Northampton if they improve, and hopefully Scarlets do you a favour by beating them when they play each other at Llanelli!

Thanks Mikey, I've run the numbers through my abacus and here's my most likely outcome;

Saints are three points ahead of us and play Scarlets last, but as Scarlets are out of contention Saints should pick up four points there.( No disrespect to the Welshmen, but they'll have nothing to play for.) So Glasgow need two wins from their last three games.

IF we win in Franklin Gardens and Racing come to Scotstoun having won the group then I can see us turning them over. But winning at Franklin gardens is the key.

Or will Toonie decide to go for broke in Paris and hope that if we don't win he is able to find 23 fit players to take on Northampton the following week?

From a Glasgow perspective the next four games are crucial, thank fecc the Luvvies will give us eight easy points.

Scarlets are really suffering at present due to their lack of strength in depth. By my calculations 10 first choice players missing yesterday including the whole back row meaning that they has to field 2 rookie no 8s and a second row! Over these two games these must have been close to the weakest Scarlets teams ever fielded in Europe.

As with other Welsh Regions if they can get pretty close to their best 15 they can compete, but not with 2/3 of a team missing. So Forget Halfpenny they need to invest in some quality forwards, to add some grunt and strength in depth.