We are right in the midst of festive derby season which means the wins are extra sweet and the losses hurt twice as bad. Amongst it all, we continue to learn about each and every team in the league, the players and the coaches. Let’s talk about it…
Roberts (35', 68'), Taylor (80')
Tries
Watkin (23'), Lake (28'), Hardy (61'), Hopkins (76')
Hawkins (36', 82')
Conversions
Edwards (24', 29', 62')
We are right in the midst of festive derby season which means the wins are extra sweet and the losses hurt twice as bad. Amongst it all, we continue to learn about each and every team in the league, the players and the coaches. Let’s talk about it…
The Scarlets once again find themselves at the bottom of the URC table after a bitterly disappointing showing against their biggest rivals. The West Wales derby is one of the closest - geographically - in any league and fans have been known to walk from one ground to the other, although this year that isn’t possible thanks to the Ospreys’ move east to Bridgend.
Over 12,000 fans packed into Parc Y Scarlets on Boxing Day making it the largest crowd in West Wales for several years, but the home faithful will have come away very downbeat after a toothless performance from the men in red.
How the Scarlets managed to not only lose this game but gift their opposition their first bonus point win of the season is a head scratcher. Dwayne Peel’s men dominated possession, territory and the set piece, stealing Ospreys ball for fun at times. In fact, they made the most carries of any team in round 8 and forced the Ospreys into the most tackles of any side. They even won the discipline battle, conceding fewer penalties and fewer yellow cards.
And yet from their 11 visits to the 22 they score just 3 tries. Mark Jones’ men, by contrast, got 4 tries from just 6 visits. When you look at where those tries came from: 2 5m mauls, a dropped ball and a scrum on the 22, you see how their victory came gift wrapped in the true spirit of Christmas.
The coaches must shoulder blame for what has been a tactically naive season so far. Last year, the Scarlets became known for their elaborate first phase tries that thrilled fans and filled up highlight reels. This season they have abandoned them, resorting instead to a laborious pick and go strategy - and it simply isn’t working. The Scarlets have the slowest ruck speed of any team in Europe and are amongst the most likely to be double tackled, whilst their lack of physical grunt means they are rock bottom of Europe for gainline success.
Added to this, an injury to captain Josh MacLeod once again exposed a leadership vacuum, whilst the his absence and the non-selection of Marnus van der Merwe left the Scarlets lacking at the breakdown, allowing player of the match Harri Deaves to have a field day. Meanwhile, it is widely accepted by those inside and outside the club that they are completely dysfunctional as a side without star fly-half Sam Costelow, whose stock only grows with each game he misses.
Scarlets fans are a demanding bunch and expect a certain level of performance from their side. They rocked up in numbers expecting that performance in this game and didn’t get it. There will have been many a restless night in West Wales since.
Ahead of the festive derbies, it had been a miserable season for Benetton. Winless away from home, the fewest tries scored in the league and top stars leaving for France, some Christmas cheer was badly needed in Treviso.
Therefore, back to back wins against compatriots Zebre has restored at least a veneer of credibility to their season. A round 8 topping 37 points and 440 metres shows how they were able to cut loose in Parma whilst Jacob Umaga racked up a round-high 15 points and Riccardo Favretto a chart topping 4 offloads.
The derby victories have catapulted Benetton into the top half of the table, but 4 wins from 8 is still a poor return for this expensively assembled outfit. They need to capitalise on their gifted momentum if they want to get back into the play-offs this season.
The bare statistics are these: Connacht have played 9 games since Stuart Lancaster took over and have won 3, one of which was against Georgian side Black Lion. They are 0 from 2 against fellow Irish provinces and 0 from 3 against Welsh regions.
Somehow, they are still in the hunt for top 8 despite winning just 2 from 7 in the league. Their remarkable 8 bonus points from those 7 games is papering over the cracks, but with back to back games against Leinster up next one suspects that won’t last much longer.
Lancaster still has credit in the bank in Ireland and the morale boosting signing of Ciaran Frawley will raise hopes of a stronger second season, but it will take more than losing bonus points to convince neutrals that this is a team making progress.
For what feels like the first time in years, Glasgow did the double over Scottish rivals Edinburgh in the 1872 cup - the oldest intercity rivalry in rugby. Franco Smith’s men made hard work of it, scoring in the final 5 minutes of both matches to put the contests to bed, but they are now once again looking up the table and focusing on earning a top 4 spot.
Whilst they did not pile on the points in front of nearly 40,000 fans at Murrayfield, keeping their hosts to just a single penalty kicked in the 6th minute will have their coaches sleeping very soundly indeed - even if they did only have 7 points of their own until the 76th minute.
It was their dynamic duo of scrum halves who crossed for all of Glasgow’s tries in this one; 2 for halfback/wing hybrid Jamie Dobie and 1 plus a conversion for George Horne. Their in-house rivalry is one of Scottish rugby’s most fascinating talking points this season.
Unconvincing they may have been, but the back to back derby wins for Leinster now means they have 6 in a row in all competitions. Their full international line-ups were pushed hard by rejuvenated Munster and Ulster teams, but they got the wins in the bag one way or another.
Is it possible for the league Champions to be dark horses? They still only sit 6th in the table with just a +13 points difference, whilst their try scoring record is nothing to write home about.
However, when we’ve all been joking about Leinster peaking at the wrong time for so long, should we be wary of them keeping quiet at this time of year? It’s difficult to see them picking up a loss in any of their next 5 URC fixtures, by which time they could be well on course for a top 4 spot…
