The officials were appalling last night. Hodges made no attempt to police releasing by the tackler or coming in from the side. Watching it back on tv even on the rare occasions where he got a decision right he got the offence wrong

Poor communication between match officials might have something to do with it, which can be expected with the bizarre assignments we see in the pro12 - Hodges questioned a pass from Mils that was fully 3 yards forward across the and the touch judge couldn't help him.

The only area where the officiating didn't cut 50-50 was the scrum. Both Sheehan during the match and Paul Wallace after were very critical of that aspect. As Wallace put it, Connacht didn't get the advantage they deserved and the couple of decisions that went Scarlets way were obviously wrong. That probably saved them their bonus point.

Darragh507 wrote: Shameful first half. Pack are non existent.

Really poor quality stuff.

Ah useless is just that. Does nothing. Offers nothing.

Rodney's side of scrum held up well and put pressure on their LH. If he did nothing else i'd be happy but he got 3 tackles and 1 carry in 45 mins.
Beats Mike Ross' stats any day. Credit to Finlay as well when he came on.

I think the lads deserve credit for battling our way back into the game after a nightmare start. 8-0 (and should have been 10) off 2 very basic mistakes. At this time of year 8 points is a significant lead but Scarlets didn't score for the next 77 minutes and in the 2nd half never seriously threatened but I did sense a deja vu of Cardiff late on when they were making ground up the pitch with ease.

The restarts are still proving problematic and we got away with it on another couple of occasions also. When the chips were down I thought Mils showed his class today. Apart from one poor enough kick in the 2nd half I thought he was superb, he brings such calmness to every situation. Saved a certain try in the first half by holding his ground just enough to put doubts in the Scarlets players head in the 2 for 1 and late on really put his body on the line to cut out a potential breakaway on a loose ball at source. Tidied up a lot of scrappy ball at full back and would say that his wages is money well spent.If he can stay injury free he will be the difference in other games also.

In defence I thought Bundee Aki was superb as was McCartney. These lads are used to cup rugby must win games and were able to put in the dirty work. Some big hits by McSharry as well who will make it hard for Pat Lam to drop him. Fortunately Scarlets let us have a lot of lineouts uncontested so we didn't have many issues there.

Really the first half was disappointing. We gradually worked our way back into it but it was largely forgettable. Like Leinster earlier in the season, the main positive of the first half was that we were only a few down at the interval. The main event of the half was the constant short-changing by the Scarlets props.

We had much the better of it in the 2nd and its a pity we couldn't deny them a losing bonus point in the end but despite our advantage in the scrum we kept kicking the points which was probably wise when scores were so hard to come by. I'm just happy tonight that we got over the line for the win.

Credit to Healy for the try, love his attitude, very underrated player who never lets the side down. The form of George is also very heartening, made some big carries. Bealham was a positive coming off the bench in such a big game and Willie got a crucial turnover.

To be fair to Carty he never hid, kicked the 3 goals you'd expect him to kick, hit a couple of decent cross field kicks and did well on a crucial up and under in the 2nd half but really even leaving aside letting the ball bounce for the try his decision making was very poor at times today.

I thought when we were going for the posts with the last kick it could have been left to Daragh Leader, even allowing for the slight wind, it wasn't a kick for Carty.

Our pick and go near the end was good and we saw out the time well which was pleasing

9 points was the main aim from these two games and we delivered which is the only real thing that mattered tonight. Plenty to work on but we're where we want to be heading into the next batch of games.

We can mix it up against Bayonne next week and see hopefully pick up the result we need.

Think we were pretty bad tonight but glad to get the win, pity we couldn't deny them the bonus point.
Carty's first half was as bad as you'll see, and not just the try, he seems to offer nothing. Was a bit better in the second half but should have got Ronaldson on. With a good 10 this team could be really competitive.
On the upside- all of this years imports made an impact, Aki and Mils were the obvious ones but Quinn Roux was very good and thought McCarthy was bloody excellent. Stole a number of balls and for Healy's try he threw a pass that any outhalf would pat themselves on the back for. The lineout was a problem but I'm not sure his throwing was the biggest issue as they seemed to be getting jumpers in the air much better than us.

Need to work on securing the kickoffs as our failure to secure them lead to all of Scarlets points.

Ref wasn't great, but maybe not as bad as other in the crowd around me seemed to think. It was mainly his reffing of the scrum that I didn't like, how he ruled against us for the first scrum of the day is beyond me. We were humping them in the scrum all day (fair play to Bealham when he came on too) but seemed to get nothing for it (one penalty is all I can think of?).

Anyway- onwards and upwards

just back home now, definitely relieved to get that one out the way, we deserved the win in a strange game we were aweful at times and great at others. will watch the recording in the morning and see then what happened. Healy had a great game but Aki wasn't far off with his MOTM performance

Absolutely relieving magic!!!

Same mistakes all season. Cannot secure the ball at the restarts. Connacht need to work harder at the break down and get on Mils and Aki shoulder for offload.

Shameful first half. Pack are non existent.

Really poor quality stuff.

Ah You is just that. Does nothing. Offers nothing.

Borders no.2 wrote: Good news from Italy to further ramp up the significance a win would have this evening. 18-10 win for Zebre over Edinburgh having trailed 3-10 early in the 2nd half and down to 13 at one stage. A win tonight moves us 12 ahead of Edinbugh.

Posted at the same time on the other topic.. :lol:

Good news from Italy to further ramp up the significance a win would have this evening. 18-10 win for Zebre over Edinburgh having trailed 3-10 early in the 2nd half and down to 13 at one stage. A win tonight moves us 12 ahead of Edinbugh.

Paddy Power have us as 3 point favourites

The key of the match lies in here

4. George Earle 4. Quinn Roux
The south-Af big monsters
5. Johan Snyman 5. Andrew Browne
The lineout tacticians

I like that team, proper oomph and grunt in that pack. I think faloon has been poor this season and 7 could be mckeons best position long term. Exciting backline with threats all around. The main question is how will the set piece function. So annoyed I will miss this game.

salmson wrote: Scarlets second row and back row are strong and their backline is every bit as tasty as ours. We should have an advantage in the front row and from the bench though. Fingers crossed!

Exactly what the Scarlets fans are saying..
Problem : Hodges doesn't ref the scrum like normal people, and he blows every little holding on in the ruck... Could increase Scarlets strenghts and lower their weaknesses

bit of a gamble going with Browne and McKeon instead of Kearney and Faloon, bit of a tradeoff i guess and with the lineouts not working he must have thought that a change was needed. no Porter or Nikora either which means all the kicking duties will fall on Carty, Cooney gets the nod on the bench. Ronaldson added to the bench i guess for his versatility.

I think he got the call at out-half correct and the other changes I'm not too worried about

Scarlets second row and back row are strong and their backline is every bit as tasty as ours. We should have an advantage in the front row and from the bench though. Fingers crossed!