Munster 22 Scarlets 46: Six-try Welshmen sweep meek challenge aside to win one-sided Pro12 final
Two wins in the space of eight days in Dublin have turned the Scarlets from also-rans into Guinness Pro12 champions.
They silenced the RDS with their comprehensive semi-final victory over Leinster and they stunned the Munster hordes across the road with another record-breaking effort as they notched the most points (46) and most tries (six) in a final and created the biggest winning margin (24). And all that in front of a record final crowd of 44,548.
It was a fearless, spectacular and overwhelming performance that will no doubt rank up there alongside the great days of old in Llanelli rugby history, like beating Australia in 1991 and New Zealand in 1972.
All week the mantra coming out of west Wales was that they weren’t going to merely make up the numbers. They had made history in Dublin eight days earlier by becoming the first away team to win a semi-final and even though they returned once again as big underdogs they got off to a flying start.
They may have been playing against the team with the meanest defence in the Pro12 but they managed to plunder four tries before the break and should have scored a fifth. At one stage it looked as though the Scarlets were going to score every time they had the ball.
Tyler Bleyendaal kicked Munster ahead with a penalty following a collapse at the game’s first scrum, but it would be 33 minutes before the Irishmen would have anything else to celebrate. In between, they were simply ripped apart.
Liam Williams grabbed the first try as he raced onto an inch-perfect kick by Rhys Patchell and then two minutes later another British & Irish Lion, Jonathan Davies, linked up with Steff Evans to create a brilliant try for the young speedster. If the crowd thought that was good, they were given another example of the Scarlets’ creativity from the re-start.
This time it was only a knock-on five metres out by Gareth Davies that stopped it from being three tries in five minutes. Davies soon made amends for that miss by racing the length of the Munster 22 after taking an inside pass from Scott Williams after he had broken through.
Next over the Munster line was lock Tadhg Beirne, who twisted and powered his way past five forwards to score from 10 metres out, and all the time Patchell kept adding the extras. It was 29-3 after 32 minutes and Munster were down and almost completely out.
A try at the posts by Bleyendaal, which the outside half also converted, threw Munster a lifeline on the stroke of half time, but the odds of a fightback took a major kick in the teeth when Patchell kicked a penalty to stretch the lead to at least four scores shortly after the re-start.
After that, the game was won and the further four tries, two to each side, counted for little.
Match details
Scoring 7 min Bleyendaal Pen 3-0; 9 min L Williams Try 3-5; 18 min Patchell Pen 3-8; 20 min S Evans Try, Patchell Con 3-15; 28 min G Davies Try, Patchell Con 3-22; 31 min Beirne Try, Patchell Con 3-29; 40 min Bleyendaal Try & Con 10-29; 44 min Patchell Pen 10-32; 70 min Van der Merwe Try, S Williams Con 10-39; 75 min Conway Try 5-39; 77 min Earls Try, Keatley Con 22-39; 80 min J Davies Try, L Williams Con 22-46
Munster: S Zebo (I Keatley 61); A Conway, F Saili, R Scannell (J Taute 6-13, 28), K Earls; T Bleyendaal, C Murray (D Williams 72); D Kilcoyne (B Scott 68), N Scannell (R Marshall 54), J Ryan (S Archer 46), D Ryan, B Holland (J O’Donoghue 53), P O’Mahony (captain), T O’Donnell (J Deysel 45), C Stander
Scarlets: J McNicholl; L Williams, J Davies, S Williams, S Evans (DTH Van der Merwe 57); R Patchell (H Parkes 55), G Davies (J Evans 52); R Evans (W Jones 52), R Elias (E Phillips 73), S Lee (W Kruger 28), L Rawlins (D Bulbring 62), T Beirne, A Shingler, J Davies, J Barclay (captain, W Boyde 62)
Referee: Nigel Owens (WRU)
Attendance: 44,548
