Scarlets vs Sale

Great start for the Pro12 so far. Lets keep it rolling Scarlets!

Scarlets: Liam Williams; DTH van der Merwe, Jonathan Davies, Scott Williams, Steff Evans; Rhys Patchell, Gareth Davies; Wyn Jones, Ken Owens (capt), Samson Lee, Jake Ball, David Bulbring, Aaron Shingler, James Davies, John Barclay.

Replacements: Ryan Elias, Luke Garrett, Werner Kruger, Lewis Rawlins, Will Boyde, Jonathan Evans, Dan Jones, Hadleigh Parkes.

Sale Sharks: Mike Haley; Byron McGuigan, Will Addison, Sam James, Paolo Odogwu; Dan Mugford, Mike Phillips; Ross Harrison, Neil Briggs, Brian Mujati, Bryn Evans, Jonathan Mills, Cameron Neild, David Seymour, Josh Beaumont (capt).

Replacements: James Flynn, Halani Aulika, Andrei Ostrikov, Magnus Lund, Tom Curry, James Mitchell, Sam Bedlow, Nev Edwards.

Referee: Romain Poite (France)

Assistant referees: Pierre Brousset (France), Mathieu Noirot (France)

TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)

Citing commissioner: Peter Ferguson (Ireland)

It's looking like you'll get your wish dodger. Glad PRO12 have turned up. It's what the competitions need.

Not looking any brighter for Sale..

Congrats, scarlets on a very convincing win

Good to see Scott Williams finding some form.

Anyone watch it and can give a report? Preferably somebody who's non-Turk so we can an accurate depiction.

Didn't watch it properly but it looked like Scarlets were pretty comfortable.

Scarlets should start looking for a decent 10 that kicks penalties that don don t go dead when going for the corner, tackles with commitment, losing the ball when tackled and not kicking the ball away. Pratchell is no 10 at this level and I think it shows with the lack of tries considering Scarlets back line.

glamorganalun wrote:Scarlets should start looking for a decent 10 that kicks penalties that don don t go dead when going for the corner, tackles with commitment, losing the ball when tackled and not kicking the ball away. Pratchell is no 10 at this level and I think it shows with the lack of tries considering Scarlets back line.

So sober. So mature too with the Pratchell jibe.

Rhys Patchell is an enigma wrapped up in a conundrum. Or the other way around. He is a big lad, he is athletic, he just needs to focus a little more on his basics, instinctually he has it, it's almost whenever he needs to think about something he mucks it up. What is he 24 ?
If he works hard on that side of his game, by the time he peaks at 26-28 yrs old, he could be some player.

What we saw last night though was the potential in the backs that we have been waiting for, on another night Scarlets would have scored half a dozen tries. The Welsh contingent in the backs were awesome last night, Jonathan Davies was constantly breaking the gain line, Scott Williams was silky smooth, Liam Williams was his old quick abrasive self, and Gareth Davies was direct and quick again.

They just need more game time together I reckon.

RiscaGame wrote:

glamorganalun wrote:Scarlets should start looking for a decent 10 that kicks penalties that don don t go dead when going for the corner, tackles with commitment, losing the ball when tackled and not kicking the ball away. Pratchell is no 10 at this level and I think it shows with the lack of tries considering Scarlets back line.

So sober. So mature too with the Pratchell jibe.

He's got a point. I've been saying for weeks that Patchell isn't a 10 only for it to fall on deaf ears. It's as if Scarlets worst season in years isn't enough evidence.

mikey, why is there this unbridled hatred towards Scarlets ?

There must be a reason.

There isn't any, I'm just stating the obvious. Bore off to your Merthyr thread.

mikey_dragon wrote:Anyone watch it and can give a report? Preferably somebody who's non-Turk so we can an accurate depiction.

We played about average to be honest. We profited from Mike Phillips was exceptional telegraphed in everything he did, which lead to our first try (fly half under pressure, in his 22 and charged down). Patchell put in a cracking cross feild kick, that nobody foresaw for DTH's first try. Then Sale went into trying to chase the game mode, which saw them turning down kicks for the post, which seemed very kickabke, in order to try and get the try from a maul. All in all we were the better side, but not much better than we have been so far this season.

Nice honest assessment. To me it sounds like Scarlets are around the same level they have been for years, including last year. They have some standout individuals and can put in a good half of rugby but remain inconsistent and error-strewn. It's not really enough to win a title and to me that's just not acceptable for a team packed full of internationals. Going forward then, we'll likely see Foxy and Scott paired in the midfield. I think they're playing okay but the worry for me is that the best centre's in Wales are Samoan and Fijian.

RiscaGame wrote:

glamorganalun wrote:Scarlets should start looking for a decent 10 that kicks penalties that don don t go dead when going for the corner, tackles with commitment, losing the ball when tackled and not kicking the ball away. Pratchell is no 10 at this level and I think it shows with the lack of tries considering Scarlets back line.

So sober. So mature too with the Pratchell jibe.

I don't think it's a jibe, he calls him Pratchell every time.

mikey_dragon wrote: I think they're playing okay but the worry for me is that the best centre's in Wales are Samoan and Fijian.

I do not agree, yes they are the players on form, but I still think the likes of Jonathan Davies and Scott Williams are better. We saw in glimpses what they are capable of on Saturday night, JD was constantly breaking the gain line and SW was as silky as ever.

I was talking about Wales team duty, I don't think I made that clear. Lee-Lo and Matavesi have been the best centre's in Wales by quite some distance this year. There doesn't seem to be any consistency to JD2 and Williams, but if their performance on Sunday was this good then I hope it's the norm from this point onwards.