Scarlets win thriller at Irish
Jones scored 17 points in the Scarlets victory
Saturday, 17, Oct 2009 05:28
By Martyn Thomas at the Madejski Stadium.
A late Stephen Jones penalty sealed a thrilling win for Llanelli at London Irish as the Scarlets went top of pool six.
Jones was handed the simplest of tasks to secure a 25-27 win after Peter Richards was penalised for offside in the 78th minute. Irish coach Toby Booth refused to blame the replacement for defeat, however.
The home side had led for large spells of the match but were on the back foot for much of the second half and despite Sailosi Tagicakibau's late try were unable to hold on.
Booth had used his programme notes to urge Exiles fans to pick up where they left off in Ireland last week and get behind the players. But as the players emerged, it was the travelling Scarlets contingent that seemed in a more vociferous mood.
This seemed to transmit to the pitch, as Llanelli started the brighter and spent much of the first five minutes camped in Irish territory.
However, the visitors were unable to turn possession into points and Irish made them pay in the seventh minute when Declan Danaher opened the scoring.
Fly-half Ryan Lamb missed the conversion but added a drop-goal before a piece of magic from Daniel Evans brought Scarlets back into it. The full-back collected his own chip ahead before evading a despairing Paul Hodgson to score.
The teams then traded penalties before the home side's centres combined to stretch their lead in the 27th minute. Seilala Mapusua chipped over the Scarlets defence for Elvis Seveali'i to touch down.
It was a frantic first half, and the visitors scored again almost straight from kick off. Llanelli reclaimed the ball before working it wide, where captain Mark Jones chipped ahead and won the race to score.
Stephen Jones then added a penalty on the stroke of half time to tie the scores at 18-18.
The second half was a much lower scoring affair, but the visitors were in front for the first time after 54 minutes thanks to another Stephen Jones penalty.
Scarlets continued to press and play the game in Irish territory.
But just when it looked like their pressure was going to pay off, Tagicakibau intercepted Mark Jones' attempted pass and raced away to score. The prolific Samoan sprinted fully 70 metres for the score, which handed Irish a 25-21 lead with just 13 minutes to go.
But Irish couldn't resist the visitors' pressure and Stephen Jones stepped forward to secure victory for the Welsh side.
London Irish: Hewat; Homer, Seveali'i, Mapusua (Richards), Tagicakibau; Lamb, Hodgson; Murphy, Paice(Coetzee), Rautenbach (Ion), Kennedy, Casey (Perry), Danaher (Lennard), Stowers (Thorpe), Hala'ufia.
Tries: Danaher, Seveali'i, Tagicakibau
Con: Lamb (2)
Pen: Lamb
Drop-goal: Lamb
Scarlets: Evans; Williams, Lamont, Davies (Higgit), Jones; Jones, Roberts; Thomas, Rees (Owens), Manu, Reed (Cooper), Day, Easterby (Pugh), Jones, Lyons.
Tries: Evans, M Jones
Con: S Jones
Pen: S Jones (5)
Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon