Scarlets - myths and misinterpretations

Myth

The Scarlets have a glittering backline of homegrown stars

Reality

Jonathan Davies is too greedy, Scott Williams is living on his reputation from the Namibia game in the World Cup and George North is a flat track bully. I am not Priestland's biggest fan, but am prepared to concede that he has the potential to live up to his hype, I don't think the other three do.

Misinterpretation

The Scarlets pack is not very good. If they can get some ball to the backs they can do something.

Reality

They were bested in the scrum, but otherwise the Scarlets pack were more than equal to the Ospreys. Dom Day had his best game in a Scarlet shirt and with Lou Reed at last looked to be forming a decent front five. A decent tight head and this pack could be going places. Priestland's nursed them well yesterday and they showed they were capable of playing a decent brand of cup type rugby.

Bit of both

The Scarlets are more sinned against than sinning at the breakdown

Reality

All refs are useless...

now why would I want to shout at any of that Glas??

how did it feel to have a "full" house yesterday??

ha, less of the "" please It was brilliant Hughie, cracking atmosphere on the terracing, loads of singing, and I could even hear the South Stand! (that never happens). Fab, fab day.

Wish we could get crowds like it all the time though, tis so much better.

Bloody wasn't full, empty seats everywhere

Are you sure it wasn't me in the West stand you heard?

Are you sure it wasn't me in the West stand you heard?

There was he'll of an echo there

ha just a bit Glas. Think the only time I heard to the O's fans was when Barry Davies scored (how could he do that to us?!) otherwise I heard nothing from them.

Hughie - aye a few empty seats, but every ticket was sold. I know of a few people who couldn't make it on the day which was a shame, kind of expect that though.

HOw can anyone 'live' of his reputation in one game against a 'minnow' team like Namibia FFS

Sc Williams is one of a number of young exciting up and coming centres we have who had his chance before others.

He is no way an established member of the Welsh back line but is still going along nicely, I expect to see beck involved in the up coming 6 Nations training squad at least.

I went to watch Llanelli pre 2003 and more recently the Scarlets play at the old Stradey several times over the years.
But yesterday was the first time that I had been to Parc y Scarlets and what a brilliant day out I had in one of the most modern homely rugby stadiums in the UK.
The only complaint that I had was the size of the gravel used to surface car park B they were three inch rocks

Glad you enjoyed your day there Cymro

I'll think you'll find they are 1 1/2" draining stone

Bedford - I've watched Williams twice live in the past few weeks and he is not living up to his billing. He showed nothing of international class yesterday. Beck, Liam Williams and Barry Davies however did look a cut above.

I was also impressed with Liam Williams yesterday his work rate on and off the ball is very good.

Barry Davies was by far the best Ospreys player out there, but then again he used to be a Scarlet, that must explain it....

Sanjay was superb again, he was so angry that he had to go off injured. Haven't seen someone play with such little fear for a long long time, the guys nuts, but looks like he could be absolutely brilliant. Think it's coz of his legs.....

He ripped the ball off Ryan Jones (?) and launched a counter attack and I thought that's a class player. However Scott Williams and George North conspired to foul it up handing the ball back to the Ospreys who had an instant overlap which they used for the field position to give Barry Davies his try. Sometimes class is as simple as knowing when and when not to kick.

Glas,

Never said he was finished article, like others he is still finding his feet at the top level.

Beck has been in very good form and pretty sure he will at least get named in an extended 6Nations training squad.

Barry Davies would have been knocking on the door before now but has had few injuries last season and a bit, the game was first time I had really seen anything of L Williams and agree looks good.

Hopefully now hat means Gatland will use a specialist XV there rather than shunting people there to cover like he did with Hook, for me however Halfpenny is still first choce XV.

Halfpenny will be there. North will be if uninjured. It seems the front runners for the third back three spot are Cuthbert and Williams. However I would go Williams Halfpenny Brew personally.

rugbydreamer wrote:ha, less of the "" please ....and I could even hear the South Stand! (that never happens

Dreamer now I know your exagerating, I am in the south stand, and could still hear you lot over us!

Sorry mate but I disagree with your lambasting of the backline a bit but willing enough to not disagree too much. I think Davies and Williams are a good pairing and will be good for each other too... Priestland is a solid flyhalf who has done his ground work, he has bad days but he is having far less of them than Steven Jones used to. Wellies still has his uses but he is not the Regions best flyhalf anymore.

With regards to tighthead, why cant the Scarlets get Jon Davies in for a bit of scrum coaching, he was a small tighthead but a bloody good player.

maestegmafia wrote:Sorry mate but I disagree with your lambasting of the backline a bit but willing enough to not disagree too much. I think Davies and Williams are a good pairing and will be good for each other too... Priestland is a solid flyhalf who has done his ground work, he has bad days but he is having far less of them than Steven Jones used to. Wellies still has his uses but he is not the Regions best flyhalf anymore.

With regards to tighthead, why cant the Scarlets get Jon Davies in for a bit of scrum coaching, he was a small tighthead but a bloody good player.

Maesteg, the Scarlets scrum has actually improved 10 fold in the last few games. I didn't realise til it was mentioned before the game but apparently Garin Jenkins has got involved as scrum coach, and I think we're seeing the effects. I've seen the Scarlets scrum completely obliterated in the recent past but it has been fairly solid the last few weeks, even in Munster.

I have been a knocker of rollerskates for sometime now but he has impressed me a lot with his work rate and performance around the park.

If Garin can work on his scrummaging, as lets be honest thats his bread and butter then I would give him another crack in the Welsh set up.

I agree there scrum is much better than the last few seasons, though they did have periods either last or the one before where they were missing three looseheads and two tight...! Maybe the other way around but not good all the same.

Does anyone know what John Davies is doing these days....? I heard he was coaching...?

maestegmafia wrote:I agree there scrum is much better than the last few seasons, though they did have periods either last or the one before where they were missing three looseheads and two tight...! Maybe the other way around but not good all the same.

Does anyone know what John Davies is doing these days....? I heard he was coaching...?

He was always a farmer as well as a rugby player so I assumed he was now running his farm full time. I agree though, players like that have a huge amount to offer even in a part time consultancy role. We must try our hardest not to lose the knowledge and experience of our ex players.

Without doubt Griff,

I just checked online and he is coaching in the Scarlets academy.

As far as I see it the biggest problem with the Scarlets pack is that they are the Scarlets pack, if that makes sense. The Scarlets are well known for having a weak front five, and I think that the reputation of being a weak scrummaging side does tend to go against teams when it comes to 50-50 calls. Deacon Manu and Rhys Thomas are both exceptable tightheads, and IMO are no worse than any of the second string (and some first string) tightheads at any of the other regions, but they have got the reputation for being poor. I believe if we were to sign Adam Jones (like when we signed Kees Meeuws), all of a sudden people would start commenting on the fact that he is not as good a tighthead as they though. Its just on of those things

ScarletSpiderman wrote:

rugbydreamer wrote:ha, less of the "" please ....and I could even hear the South Stand! (that never happens

Dreamer now I know your exagerating, I am in the south stand, and could still hear you lot over us!

Ha well to be fair, I only heard the south stand lot once, some bloke dressed up as father christmas seemed to be leading the singing. Twas great to hear it though, and in the north it wasn't just the terrace dwellers getting the singing going either, loads in the seated part were going for it as well. It was fantastic.

Dreamer - I think the main problem with us in the South Stand is that nobody wants to take it upon themselves to get things started so to speak. As when someone does have the nerve to take it upon themselves to start singing or chanting it does tend to pick up. Maybe we could transfer some of your lot over for a match or two and things could pick up.

ScarletSpiderman wrote:As far as I see it the biggest problem with the Scarlets pack is that they are the Scarlets pack, if that makes sense. The Scarlets are well known for having a weak front five, and I think that the reputation of being a weak scrummaging side does tend to go against teams when it comes to 50-50 calls. Deacon Manu and Rhys Thomas are both exceptable tightheads, and IMO are no worse than any of the second string (and some first string) tightheads at any of the other regions, but they have got the reputation for being poor. I believe if we were to sign Adam Jones (like when we signed Kees Meeuws), all of a sudden people would start commenting on the fact that he is not as good a tighthead as they though. Its just on of those things

I think what this derby says about the Scarlets pack is that they struggle to deal with Adam Jones when the Ref allows him to get away with murder in the scrums! He constantly bound on the arm and used this leverage to twist the young Scarlets prop, he also appeared to drive down on the hit. Not suprisingly given Adams ability and reputation, the officials (wrongly) pinged the Scarlets prop for not binding. When Adam went off (one collapse too many) the Scarlets were able to drive the Ospreys pack backwards.

Clearly the IRB need to look at the way the scrum is played, it is virtually impossible to bind on the tight (very tight in Adam's case) and slipery modern jerseys. Binding on the arm is not allowed and should be penalised. Perhaps props should be made to wear some form of belt with grips for binding on (similar to the lineout forwards knee rolls) this will allow legal scrums to take place with correct binding and may sort out this problematical part of the game.

Myth: Scarlets need to get more "streetwise" and are naive when it comes to the "dark arts" of rugby.

Reality: Scarlets may not be a team who infringe a lot at the breakdown but they have their own tactics. Their brand of attacking rugby makes great effect of illegal obstruction and extremely clever decoy runners. Their passing is always flat, right on the gainline which leads to a large amount of forward passes which is not always picked up.

Blast!