Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac hails stylish final victory over Munster
Head coach Wayne Pivac praised Scarlets’ attacking style as they secured the Guinness PRO12 title with a stunning 46-22 success against Munster at the Aviva Stadium.
First half tries from Liam Williams, Steff Evans, Gareth Davies and Tadhg Beirne put Scarlets in the driving seat against this year’s table toppers, leading 29-10 at half-time.
The Llanelli outfit, who had ended Leinster’s hopes at the nearby RDS last week, hammered home their dominance with two more tries from replacement DTH van der Merwe and James Davies in the final 11 minutes.
Injured captain Ken Owens joined stand-in skipper John Barclay at the trophy presentation as Scarlets were crowned champions for the first time since 2004.
Although the heavy rainfall prior to kick-off was a cause for concern, Pivac was delighted with Scarlets’ level of performance.
It was very, very pleasing. It’s something that the boys want to do. They want to play the style of rugby that we’re playing. It’s been successful for us. Probably the thing that was a little annoying was when the rain came down so heavily this morning. We were hoping that it would stop before kick-off time, and it did. Very pleased with the boys, the way they nailed those skills under pressure in those conditions. Just a fantastic result.
It was very, very pleasing. It’s something that the boys want to do. They want to play the style of rugby that we’re playing. It’s been successful for us.
Probably the thing that was a little annoying was when the rain came down so heavily this morning. We were hoping that it would stop before kick-off time, and it did. Very pleased with the boys, the way they nailed those skills under pressure in those conditions. Just a fantastic result.
– WAYNE PIVAC, SCARLETS HEAD COACH
Pivac feels that working on the core skills of the game has helped to develop a winning formula at Parc y Scarlets, and while Munster wingers Andrew Conway and Keith Earls did get through for a couple of late consolation tries, he acknowledged that the Welsh region’s defence was just as impressive as their attack.
We work on a lot of basic skills. We’ve got some players that have got a lot of X-factor, but it’s giving them the ball going forward. We’ve been able to do that.
We’re talking about our attack now, scoring tries, but also our defence has been fantastic. Again today, we let a couple of soft ones in at the end, but generally speaking our defence was pretty rock solid. I think we’re not only a strong attacking team now, but we’re also a very strong defensive team.
– WAYNE PIVAC, SCARLETS HEAD COACH
