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Scarlets 25 Leinster 52
Embarking upon on another international window, the champions yet again confirmed the greatest truism of the Guinness Pro14, namely that their school-, club- and academy-fuelled strength in depth is in a different league.
A Scarlets v Leinster meeting at full-strength would be an interesting, full-on match-up. However, a week out from the Wales v Ireland Six Nations opener and with the home side missing 12 members of the Welsh squad plus five other injured international front-liners, Leinster made light of missing all but Tadhg Furlong of their 17-strong Irish contingent.
Afterwards Leo Cullen repeatedly referred to the sole defeat this season at home to Connacht. “I think a lot of guys were itching to get an opportunity. It was great to see Jamie Osborne come on for us in the second half to make his debut.
“It’s a very good time of year for us when we start to bring some young players through. We had a number of young players playing against Connacht. It didn’t go particularly well for us so it was a more enjoyable experience today.”
Furlong was at the heart of what was, admittedly, a fairly experienced pack in which internationals James Tracy, Dan Leavy (17 tackles and 11 carries for 28 metres) and Jack Conan (15 carries for 79 metres) also performed strongly, as did Luke McGrath behind them, so sending signals to both Cullen and Andy Farrell. Leavy is definitely getting there. Ross Moloney marshalled the lineout while Ryan Baird (17 carries) and Josh Murphy also put in big shifts.
Denied an attacking bonus point for the first time this season by Munster last week in Limerick, the champions had their 11th try-scoring bonus point in a dozen games this done and dusted by half-time.
The Harry Byrne-Ciarán Frawley dual 10-12 playmaking axis, back in harness for the first time since the win over Cardiff in November, again showed its rich potential as they combined to probe the Scarlets defence by varying the point of attack.
Along with their clever and composed game management, Byrne played close to the line and wasn’t afraid to take the ball into contact - often not leaving himself much option. His range of passing is a delight and there was the trademark height and hang time of Byrne’s restarts, as well as seven kicks out of seven.
The Scarlets didn’t help themselves by conceding some utterly daft penalties, so giving Leinster regular access to the home 22 - and there was usually only one outcome then.
All four first half tries emanated from their pack’s power at scrum, lineout and, in particular, maul time, as they repeatedly set up the catch-and-drive quickly, staying nice and compact to remorselessly drive the Scarlets back.
Leavy scored the first from close-range, before a rare defensive blip between Peter Dooley and Tracy enabled Uzair Cassiem to put Dane Blacker to give the Scarlets an illusionary and brief lead.
Tracy was driven over for the second and Mike Adamson walked behind the posts and sinbinned Cassiem for the third. Then, when seemingly set to make it a hat-trick of maul tries after a superb tackle by Josh Murphy on Marc Jones to spear another penalty into the corner, for variety captain McGrath peeled blind and Cian Kelleher beat a couple of flimsy tackles for a soft try.
As so often happens, with the game decided and the maximum haul achieved, the edge was taken off in the second period, when Leinster conceded another brace of tries and scored three more.
McGrath popped over after another pick-and-jam try off a scrum, before two academy players dotted down their first Leinster tries. Fullback Max O’Reilly scored perhaps the pick of the seven when gliding over from 45 metres out from Byrne’s pass and David Hawkshaw, within barely a minute of his arrival, also finished elusively from Jamie Osborne’s delayed pass.
The 19-year-old Osborne, a utility back and a unit from Naas with little rugby under his belt, also caught the eye, not least when marking his arrival within a minute of his debut by frog marching Johnny McNicholl, a 30-year-old former Crusaders full-back cum Welsh international, back ten metres.
That about summed it up.
Scoring sequence: 3 mins Costelow pen 3-0; 17 mins Leavy try, Byrne con 3-7; 19 mins Blacker try, Costelow con 10-7; 23 mins Tracy try, Byrne con 10-14; 31 mins Byrne pen 10-17; 34 mins Costelow pen 13-17; 36 mins penalty try 13-24; 40 (+1 min), Kelleher try, Byrne con 13-31; (half-time 13-31); 54 mins McGrath try, Byrne con 13-38; 63 mins Homer try 18-38; 67 O’Reilly try, Byrne con 18-45; 73 mins Hawkshaw try, Byrne con 18-52; 79 mins O’Brien try and con 25-52.
Scarlets: Johnny McNicholl; Tom Prydie, Tyler Morgan, Steff Hughes (C), Ryan Conbeer; Sam Costelow, Dane Blacker; Phil Price, Marc Jones, Javan Sebastian; Morgan Jones, Sam Lousi; Blade Thomson, Dan Davis, Uzair Cassiem. Replacements: Tevita Ratuva for Davis (56 mins), Kemsley Mathias for Price, Will Homer for Blacker (both 62 mins), Taylor Davies for Jones, Werner Kruger for Sebastian, Carwyn Tuipulotu for Luisi, Angus O’Brien for Costelow (all 67 mins), Paul Asquith for Conbeer (68 mins).
Sinbinned: Cassiem (36-46 mins).
Leinster: Max O’Reilly; Cian Kelleher, Liam Turner, Ciarán Frawley, Dave Kearney; Harry Byrne, Luke McGrath (C); Peter Dooley, James Tracy, Tadhg Furlong; Ross Molony, Ryan Baird; Josh Murphy, Dan Leavy, Jack Conan. Replacements: Tom Clarkson for Furlong (half-time), Jamie Osborne for Turner (46 mins), Seán Cronin for Tracy, Ed Byrne for Dooley (both 57 mins), Jack Dunne for Conan (62 mins), Hugh O’Sullivan for McGrath (72 mins), David Hawkshaw for Frawley (73 mins), Scott Fardy for Leavy (78 mins).
Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU).