Scarlets crowned PRO12 champions
The Scarlets finished their season on a high when they beat Munster 46-22 in the PRO12 Final at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday.
The Welsh region won their first championship title in 2004 and had almost secured their second by half-time through tries from Liam Williams, Steff Evans, Gareth Davies and Tadhg Beirne.
Three-time champions Munster had won their previous seven PRO12 games but never looked in this game and were outplayed in every department.
Andrew Conway and Keith Earls got late consolations for Rassie Erasmus’ side, but DTH van der Merwe and James Davies also touched down in the second half for Scarlets to secure a first PRO12 title for a Welsh region since 2012.
Tyler Bleyendaal had kicked the first points of the afternoon but Scarlets soon took the lead when Liam Williams collected a superbly weighted Rhys Patchell chip to touch down in the corner.
Patchell added a penalty before Scarlets scored an excellent second try, Jonathan Davies exploded out of the 22 then exchanged passes with Steff Evans who crossed for his 13th of the season.
Minutes later Scott Williams burst through a tackle then offloaded to Gareth Davies to give the scrum-half a run-in under the posts to mark his 150th Scarlets appearance.
The Irish province were all at sea defensively and Beirne was next on the scoresheet as the lock bludgeoned his way over the line following a kick downfield.
Handling errors had prevented Munster getting any kind of momentum but Bleyendaal did claw a try back with the last play of the half to send the sides in 29-10 at the break.
Patchell struck a second penalty after the interval, and Scarlets’ defensive line-speed kept the pressure on the Munstermen, lead by the charge of the energetic Lewis Rawlins.
Patchell was substituted early for the second week running and still Munster could find no fluency, attacking narrowly and seeming to have no confidence with ball in hand.
The crowd expected a Munster fightback but Scarlets were not done yet, substitute van der Merwe beat three defenders to score a fifth before Conway and Earls added consolations for Munster.
But it was the Llanelli side who had the last laugh, James Davies raced away for a 50 metre score that put the icing on the victory to win a first Scarlets title since 2004.
The scorers:
For Munster:
Tries: Bleyendaal, Conway, Earls
Cons: Bleyendaal, Keatley
Pen: Bleyendaal
For Scarlets:
Tries: L Williams, S Evans, G Davies, Beirne, Van der Merwe, James Davies
Cons: Patchell 3, L Williams 2
Pens: Patchell 2
Munster: 15 Simon Zebo, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Francis Saili, 12 Rory Scannell, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Tyler Bleyendaal, 9 Conor Murray, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Tommy O’Donnell, 6 Peter O’Mahony (c), 5 Billy Holland, 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Dave Kilcoyne
Replacements: 16 Rhys Marshall, 17 Brian Scott, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Jack O’Donoghue, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Jaco Taute
Scarlets: 15 Johnny McNicholl, 14 Liam Williams, 13 Jonathan Davies, 12 Scott Williams, 11 Steff Evans, 10 Rhys Patchell, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 John Barclay (c), 7 James Davies, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 Lewis Rawlins, 3 Samson Lee, 2 Ryan Elias, 1 Rob Evans
Replacements: 16 Emyr Phillips, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 David Bulbring, 20 Will Boyde, 21 Jonathan Evans, 22 Hadleigh Parkes, 23 DTH van der Merwe
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant Referees: David Wilkinson (Ireland), Ian Davies (Wales)
TMO: Neil Paterson (Scotland)
Photo credit: Official PRO12 Twitter page