Scrletsfan32x wrote: Anyone know what’s wrong with Eddie? He’s down on the injured list along with Roberts

Shoulder

Believe or not Thomas is!!! What are they thinking down there?

I could never cover loose-head as a tight-head, felt weird.

tight 5 looks solid for the scrum, seems to be a lack of ball carriers overall though.

No players leap out at me from the Zebre team as being dangerous tbh, although I did at first think Ruggeri was former French wing Aurelien Rougerie.... turns out he's 45 now so probably won't be turning out for Zebre lol

I think I’d rather Henry came on as tight head and Hawley loose head. We know Henry can lock out the right hand side of a scrum. I’ve seen Hawley struggle in his favoured position on a couple of occasions so at least we’d only be weak on one side of the scrum with Hawley at loose head. We might be weak on both sides if Henry plays there. 

Aurelian Rougerie at 45 is too good for most of this lot.

I think Simone Gesi on the wing would show him a clean pair of heels and Da Re has played for Italy a few times.

Zebre can be dangerous with ball in hands. Mazza and Zanon are a good couple in centre 

Agree Hawley is big lad but poor in the scrum,I assume HOC &Soc are injured? And cant see Henry covering loosehead?  Joe Roberts injured as well? Think Soc took a head knock last week and Hepburn picked up something with Scotland?

I m sorry for this big O.T., but considering playing against an italian side, I have the pleasure to share with you a part of my job in rugby in in Sicily..I m the DoR of Ragusa Rugby, maybe the last year considering my future in Modica Scarlets..

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2482097398930724&ref=sharing" rel="nofollow - https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2482097398930724&ref=sharing

This is the mine project and proudly show to you...from 3 years we work inside the schools of provincia di Ragusa, our coaches go in different schools of the region for coaching kids, from 11 to 14 yo, and then weekly we meet in Ragusa stadium for a tournament between schools with tag rugby.

This video was 2 days ago, we were 260 athlets on the field...I dont say you all the big invisible work to do this cause is not easy to job with schools, autorities and many more...

I m a little bit tired cause rugby is my second job, but this evening I will stay at home. I want see Scarlets win!!!

All best building rugby in Sicily.

If you develop any big ball carriers don't forget to send them over.

Excellent 👌 

You'd be well placed to say when Italy have in general gotten it right over the years. (And dare I say it where Wales have gotten it wrong).

Unfortunately this is a solo club project, in that day no one of FIR were present at the event...we are working only on our forces...

Under the national team in Italy there is a rugby desert and FIR, at the moment, its isnt better of wru..

He been charged down three times already apart from that he is very assured and just appears to have so much time the sign of a quality player. 

Even if it was a knock on surely advantage over when they kicked the ball 

Not only that,didn't Zebre kick it you him? There for they had the advantage (be it they didn't know) then kicked it away 

Sun shining, spring equinox, we won, happy days 

Should have been 40 plus but a win.

Taylor was superb, 

Very scrappy second half, some good and bad but it gave a number of players a run out 

Good to see CLJ developing 

Really hope we get some recruitment and retention, and a refreshed coaching staff.

I’m so happy Macs put in a confident show. Douglas’ knock-on won’t take away from how class that solo try was. The boy’s electric when he’s confident and well on-brand.

Good to hear Tom targeting “top eight”, but there’s at least 14 points to there as it stands.

Kemsley worked his socks off.

In the first half we were most successful  when we took Zebre on physically,  as they were fanning out  negating any lateral movement. We created  tries by creating space in wider channels by doing this.  

The problem is Scarlets  don't  have enough carriers to do this successfully  against better teams. Zebre are the bottomof the league and it showed in the first half. 

In fairness they must had a rollicking at HT, because Zebre came out  a different team and for  ten mins  had us defending.  They didn't  score and Scarlets  went down their 22 and scored..game over.

Apart from Macs Page wonder try ( that wasn't)  Taylor and Holtz performances  stood out. 

When we have Ryan Elias playing with Holtz and Jake Ball,  we have a key element  of physicality previously  missing. Mathias was good tonight, but needs a kick up the backside to produce more of those performances regularly. He has the physical stature and potential  to be in the Wales squad, particularly when you  consider how poor Archie Griffin  was when he came on for Francis against the Italians. 

Sam Lousi however  is coasting along , and is a shadow of the player he was two seasons ago, whe  he was " coaches player of the season ". I always said it was worth the entry money alone, just to see Sam perform and offload etc.

You never see it now. It's been an absolute pleasure to see him play, but its time to move on for Sam .

Price  and Dan Davis,  who took his try well,  are just two of several, who have not kicked on, and may flourish  at another level. 

Happy with the win, and playing with greater zeal abd speed of ball.

Playing a mediocre team today however, didn't  expose our  lack of depth.

Nigel Davies knows that, and if Scarlets survive( and I am praying), there HAS  to be greater depth the key being recruitment of forwards who can carry  over the gain line. If this doesn't  happen Scarlets will continue  to languish near the bottom  of the table, a place we have rarely  been in the past.

I await to see how the scenario unfolds, with bated  breath

Totally agree pedantic 

A fair summary...

The half-time 'talking to' for Zebre was given by their 10, who was spitting feathers - lots of shouting and arm-waving - it certainly had an effect! S4C guys commented on that - it wasn't the coach.

I thought Holtz deserved MOM - he destroyed their scrum in the first half, winning a few pens and creating pressure, and also carried well... I was saying to myself 'I bet they won't give it to a prop' when, fair play, Gwyn Jones made the right decision. Taylor also not far off it, and as always Anderson was making ground from every kick-off, despite attempted tackles. In American football, they have a metric of 'yards after contact' - his figures for that must be league-leading, or near enough!

Archie got us off to a good start with that dart to the blind side for Taylor's try, and had a tidy game. CLJ showed again how good he is with his touch-finders, giving the pack every chance to roll over from 5m out - and also that he still hasn't learnt that pressure comes quicker at this level, and gets kicks charged down - that's the one flaw in his game that he must eradicate ASAP. 

Macs Page - pick of the backs, and so unlucky to have that try ruled out. Apart from that, I thought the ref team had a tidy game - except for the leniency shown to their 9, who really should have walked after already getting a warning and offending again by clipping CLJ around the head. Their coach subbed his 9 immediately after that - only for the sub 9 to also get a warning! Ref was weak on that. 

As for survival - it was said or written somewhere this week that since the league started, Scarlets have been the bottom Welsh team just once and the Dragons 17 times... but they are safe? It makes no sense at all. We certainly deserve to be here next season - but then, so do the Os compared to the Drags. 

Thought our bench was weaker than theirs which was a shame. The first 60 we dominated every aspect of the game

Hope marnus injury isn’t too serious

I felt that way too, made worse when I realised that we actually lost the second half 17-12, and they were held up over the line twice. Another potentially 14pts for them.

For a bottom of the table clash, we showed we wanted that win and we took our chances well. 

However the drop in standard when Holz, Macleod, and Archie Hughes went off was jsut confirming the extreme need to strengthen the squad. 

It was good to see CLJ show some good moments, and continue his development. He needs to play as much as possible now to learn the pace of the game to limit charge down kicks etc. 

It was good to see Hawley look hungry for contact when carrying and is a project worth persevering with. 

Hopefully something that will build some confidence. 

"It was good to see Hawley look hungry for contact when carrying and is a project worth persevering with. "

Yes, he carried and defended well - his scrummaging was much weaker than Holtz, though, so we need to see if he can step up in that area.

Those were my thoughts. He knows it's his weakness, he showed his frustration after conceding a penalty in one scrum.

I wish him well and hope that's something that he can work on and rectify. He has some experienced guys around him that can help him out.

CLJ is a talent, kicked too many times but no issue as he is just 18.

Mee bigger than I thought.

Holz was class. If only he could stay fit.

We were disappointing in the 2nd half.

Macs try should have remained. 

Hawley looked good - who is he?

When have we started booing the opposition's kicker?

Their #6 and was it #20 (the big black guy) were a handful.

It was really a tale of two halves.  

First half we were very physical and competitive, we had their scrum in all sorts of trouble and we also competed and disrupted a lot of their lineout ball, we also took our 4 tries well and with. Little more composure could have been 30plus points ahead by the break.

I then thought that with the 4 tries in the bag we would then relax and play some good rugby but I think that the took relaxing to a different level and totally eased off.  

Second half we were really poor, and we made out front row substitutions too early.  VDM had a poor game (when he came on) he messed up a few lineouts and wasn’t his usual dominant self in the loose, whereas Elias was 100% with his lineout and also made a lot of hard yards in the loose, it was almost like role reversals of the past year or so.

Mathius put in a huge shift in the front row and also showed good hands, especially in the buildup to Mee’s try.  Douglas, Holz and Anderson were their usually industrious selves but for me the pick of the forwards was Taylor who got through so much work either side of the ball.

A shout out for Page too, his lineout for his try was really good, he didn’t fall off too many tackles and the try that wasn’t just showed the kind of player that he has the talent to be.

We are currently at least 6 or 7 extra players away from being a regular mid table team, who is also able to compete in the group stages in Europe.  We need 40plus senior professional players to really be competitive so our current squad of 33-34 senior players plus a smattering of academy players / project players isn’t good enough in the middle to long term.

Plenty to work on, but despite this being our worst season I. A very long time we still have double the wins of the dragons.  After Lienster next Friday we have 3 weeks break, during which time we could get a few players back from injury and could work on more patterns of play, our DNA.

Yep, but I honestly thought their two late tries were a bit undeserved. Really not a fair reflection on the game. 43-5 should have stood. We did well holding them up twice.

Wasn’t a pretty performance, but it did have some level of coherence at least.

Don't worry, Leinster won't feel the need to spend any time at all on it

This  afternoon  I was able to speak to someone  close toothed heart of Scarlets  set up at tye Wanderers  game v Pontypridd. 

Regarding  our future and departures, we allready know Marnus is departing for Munster, and Hepburn  to Edinburgh,  but it appears  Douglas is also leaving  together  with Lousi, now 34. The shock  for me is that Jarrod  Taylor leaving. He was outstanding  last night , far better than Josh.

Jake Ball also struggling  to maintain  levels, although his physicality is welcome.

I was told Scarlets  need  to target about 10 players,  mainly forwards.

With an ageing pack ..it seems right. Some physical younger guys needed giving us front foot ball

Whether we have the funds to embrace our needs is another  matter..if we still exist of course.

Where the heck we get better locks than Lousi and Douglas without going NWQ, I just don’t know though.

Surely Henry Thomas is nearing the end of his career too.

Probably looking at 2, 4,5, 6, 7?

Regarding  locks, like I said in the post match assessments, 

" time waits for no man" and Lousi at  34 needs replacing. Douglas,  excellent  last year, but more a 6 than lock, still  as an engine  but like Marnus, Henry  Thomas and Hepburn , nothing like the

 foce they were last season.

Wasp of course is right ,where we find suitable  replacements from is the million dollar question  ?  The overall,uncertainty  and finance( ir lack of ) makes it incredibly difficult 

Be nice to have some communication from the club how they intend to fill these gaps going forward. 

Are there plans to move anybody up from the academy?

Clearly they've dipped their toe in the loan system with Cuckson. Do they intend to expand this strategy?

Interesting - he hasn’t set the world on fire but is very strong and has a lot of energy. Maybe we’ve offered him a carrot. I’d be happy enough to see him stay if we can recruit some big locks.

Some of their contracts will be expiring.

Harry Beddall has gone alright at Dragons

If they've made their homes in England it might be difficult to sign them.

Douglas has been a b@$7@5d for us this season.

Are we going to give the WRU what it wants and transfer B/C-list Welsh players, rather than scour the world?

I'd be very disappointed to see him leave. He is aggressive can get over the ball and win turnovers. He also carries aggressively and won't take a backward step. The fact that he wants to stay speaks volumes for his commitment to our cause going forward. He seems equally adept at 6 & 7. 

I've long been a fan of his, but some on here haven't shared my enthusiasm in the past. Our best player last Friday, though I must say Holz also did some damage to their scrum first half. Douglas has also served us well in his time here. If we can only keep 3 NWQ, then those are the 3 I'd keep. If the O's fold, I'd be in for Smith their SR.

Same, I like Jarrod a lot. Only reason he would be on my “out” list is to free up an NWQ slot/ budget for someone bigger in the front 5

That's a lot of recruitment with what is likely a limited no. of NWQs. I don't immediately see where there are many/any WQ players of sufficient quality either. 

Holz had a monster game, Elias back to somewhere near his best.  Taylor looked really good, the lack of other options giving him minutes on the pitch seems to have done him the world of good.  Mee carried on where he left off for Wales.  Hughes gave lots of quick ball from rucks, so much work rate to do that he was obviously knackered and the call to bring on Blacker was right.  Hawley looks like a giant, I can't remember him doing anything wrong, got bout and got involved, solid debut overall.  Will be interesting to see him develop.

I'm glad we didn't have to see Thomas as a makeshift hooker in scrum or line out lol, Marnus going off was worrying.  Murray looked a shadow of the player he is normally, maybe back to the wing for him?

Zebre 6 looked a class above the rest of their side, reminded me of Shings with his athleticism and work rate from 6.  Also their giant replacement number 8 (Odiame?) can stay in Llanelli and pull on a scarlet jersey, real ball carrying threat that lad.  Gesi kept Rogers quiet all game, but aside from that Zebre were poor.  How we didn't get more out of the scrums than we did I don't know.

The disallowed try, I can understand why it wasn't given but I don't agree with the reasoning.  The claim is the ref didn't spot the knock-on, so didn't call advantage, and having not called advantage the Zebre player didn't know that he had the option to keep hold for a scrum or kick away and that kick - which might not have happened- lead directly to the try.  I think if we apply logic, their scrum only had a reverse gear and they would 100% rather have kicked away advantage rather than risk the scrum penalty, and also the ref not seeing something isn't either teams fault its the ref's.

A bit annoying to let them get any scores at all really, we seemed to come out after half time wanting to defend the lead not push on (understandable when you haven't won many games all season) whilst Zebre must have had an inspirational team talk (or cocaine in the half time oranges) because they were a different team 2nd half (again easy to go for it once you've already lost).

Agree dont need a Tighthead to carry first job scrum,great to see Holtz back can he do 2 games consecutively? Hawley looks a big lad but needs more time

Nearly a whole pack required, almost as if its been designed that we need a load of forwards from across the bridge so the WRU can minimize the loss of WQ players/honour the clause they've put in Ospreys contracts that 'another team will be found for them' .....

And Ball isn't a 20/25 games a season guy anymore. We need an entire front 5 (and some) that's URC standard.

We really need to be looking at some of the youngsters in the final few games in a sensible way, players like Hawley, Kossuth, Harry Thomas, Josh Morse and Will Evans need to be scheduled in for us to take a decent look at them at URC level with good players around them.