High flying Neath are getting ready to pile on the agony on Martin Johnson’s faultering Leicester side as they build towards their Heineken Cup clash at The Gnoll next month.
The Tigers may have won back to back Heineken Cups, but they have slumped to two defeats already this season and lost their last two pool outings in Wales at Pontypridd and Llanelli.
And after seeing his side blow away the reigning Welsh champions, Neath coach Lyn Jones believes his players are getting set to mount a major challenge.
“In the space of four weeks we are playing against three of last season’s top four teams in Europe. We’ve beaten Llanelli, Munster are next up and then we take on Leicester,” said Jones.
“They are landmark occasions for us and I think we have the ability to win all three of them. The match againast Llanelli was a temperature gauge for us.
“I asked the players to raise their game a level and they did that. They all want to play international rugby and the only way to do that is to perform consistently well.
“It was the manner of victory that was most pleasing for me, not merely the fact we beat a very good side for the first time in three years.
“As a coach, you tend to look at different targets and you know you have to beat the best teams if you are going to challenge for the major trophies.
“Leicester have lost a couple of games, but that could be a bit of a double-edged sword. I’m sure it is going to force them to re-group and come back even stronger.”
New wing Sean Marsden and former Scarlet flanker Hywel Jenkins grabbed second half tries for Neath as they overturned a 6-3 interval deficit. The rest of the damage was done by outside half Lee Jarvis, who kicked 19 points
With three successive victories to their credit in Pool A, Neath are only a bonus point behind Munster and well on course for a home quarter-final in the Celtic League. As for the reigning Welsh champions Llanelli, they need to beat arch-rivals Swansea to bag a top four slot.
Their evenings work simply went from bad to worse as they found themselves incurring the wrath of Irish referee Alan Lewis at the tackle area. Lewis eventually lost his patience and sent Scott Quinnell to the sin-bin in the second half when Neath were 20-6 ahead.
SCORERS:
Neath: Tries: S Marsden, H Jenkins; Cons: L Jarvis 2; Pens: L Jarvis 5.
Llanelli: Try: I Thomas; Con: S Jones; Pens: S Jones 2.
