Magners League: Scarlets 18-14 Glasgow Warriors

Scarlets (12) 18
Pens: Priestland 6
Glasgow (0) 14
Tries: Weir, Van der Merwe Cons: Weir 2

The boot of Rhys Priestland proved crucial for the Scarlets
Scarlets had to survive a fight-back from Glasgow to claim a narrow win at a rain-soaked Parc Y Scarlets.
Rhys Priestland marked his 50th Magners League appearance by kicking all of the Scarlets points.
It looked comfortable for them as they raced into a 15-0 lead, but Lou Reed's yellow card allowed Glasgow in.
First Duncan Weir raced home from 40m before DTH van der Merwe added a second to bring them within a point, but Priestland sealed the Scarlets victory.
It takes them up to second in the Magners League on 24 points from seven games, while Glasgow remain 10th in the table with just two wins despite the losing bonus point.
The visitors should have been ahead inside 90 seconds, but Ruaridh Jackson pulled his kick wide when Deacon Manu failed to roll away.
The Scarlets responded with some good attacking moves in driving rain and were rewarded with a penalty of their own when Ed Kalman came in from the side.
Priestland launched his first of two quick kicks, while Jackson missed another attempt at the other end in between.
Worse was to come for Glasgow, when on 33 minutes John Barclay was yellow-carded which allowed the Scarlets to build on their lead.
That came from two more penalties by Priestland to give the Welsh side a 12-0 half time lead.
Glasgow brought on Weir at the break for Jackson at fly-half, but it was Priestland who continued to add to the scoring with his fifth successful penalty.
But the tide turned dramatically and Glasgow took full advantage of the extra man when Lou Reed was sin-binned on 50 minutes as the home side were guilty of repeat offending.
Within four minutes, Weir exposed slack Scarlets defending to make a 40m run over the try-line, which he also converted.
And then centre Max Evans made a good break and offloaded to Van der Merwe on the left to cut in and claim a second try bringing Glasgow to 15-14 with the conversion.
The Scarlets needed some respite and they got that 12 minutes from time when Priestland kicked again
They pushed to see off the game but fell a metre short and then had to defend desperately in overtime as Glasgow kept the ball alive and went for the Scarlets' try-line only to knock on with the line in sight.
Scarlets: Evans, L. Williams, King, Maule, Reynolds, Priestland, Roberts, I. Thomas, Owens, Manu, Reed, Welch, Turnbull, McCusker, Morgan.
Replacements: Day for Welch (52), Pugh for Turnbull (65), Phillips for McCusker (65).
Not Used: John, P. Edwards, G. Davies, Newton, S. Williams.
Glasgow: Horne, van der Merwe, M. Evans, Morrison, Aramburu, Jackson, Gregor, Welsh, Hall, Kalman, Muldowney, Gray, Harley, Barclay, Vernon.
Replacements: Shaw for Horne (38), Weir for Jackson (41), Pyrgos for Gregor (65), Grant for Welsh (61), Thomson for Hall (61), Tkachuk for Kalman (56), Ryder for Muldowney (61).
Not Used: Forrester.
Att: 7,149
Ref: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland).

This article was posted on 29-Oct-2010, 21:04 by Hugh Barrow.