The Scarlets went to Belfast and beat Ulster A 45-15 with a blistering display that included six tries. After falling behind to an early penalty, the Scarlets then scored 38 unanswered points as they turned on the style.
Corey Baldwin, Tomi Lewis and Morgan Williams all crossed in the first-half and Angus O’Brien added three conversions to his equalising penalty. That made it 24-3 at the break and further tries from Kieran Hardy, Lewis Ellis-Jones and Ryan Conbeer, all converted by O’Brien, completed the scoring.
Connacht Eagles had no answer to the pace and panache of Wales Sevens wing Jared Rosser as he raced over for five tries in the Dragons 53-38 victory. Last season Rosser scored a Guinness PRO14 hat-trick in Italy and he was simply unstoppable at Ystrad Mynach.
“The game against the Blues the previous week was quite direct and we didn’t really play after a couple of phases, so we tried to play a more attacking game this time. We focussed on making that extra pass, trusting our skills and playing to our strengths,” said Rosser.
“We wanted to play with a lot of tempo and we practiced that against the seniors on Tuesday and Wednesday. We got a lot of gain from it and I think it came off.”
In addition to Rosser’s one man assault on the Eagles, Gerard Ellis and Chris Coleman touched down for first-half tries and Carwyn Penny and Calvin Wellington scored after the break. Rosser scored twice in the first half and bagged a hat-trick in the second.
It wasn’t such a happy weekend for the Ospreys and Cardiff Blues, who were put to the sword by Munster A and Leinster A. The Blues were beaten 57-10 in Dublin, while the Ospreys went down 52-7 at St Helen’s.
Sion Bennett and Tom Williams scored tries for the Blues, but they conceded eight in return. It was a similar story in Swansea, where outside half Josh Thomas scored the home side’s only points with a try and conversion as the Munster A team topped the seven tries their senior side had posted against the Ospreys in their 49-13 PRO14 win in Cork the night before.
“Even if you’re only 10 or 15 per cent off your game when you come to a place like Dublin to face a side like Leinster, they will punish you. We were probably 30 or 40 per cent from where we were last week as a team,” admitted Blues head coach Richie Rees.
“They’ve got a strength-in-depth here that we simply don’t have. But the brutal honesty of it is that we weren’t good enough – that’s from the players, the management, everyone.
“Combinations and teams take a while to gel, but the truth is we gave them a few of their tries and we couldn’t handle the physicality. The game came down to the physical battle and we lost it.
“We need to put it right over the next few weeks and we can now look forward to our first Celtic Cup game at home. The beauty is we get a chance again next week to roll the dice and to try to put this game to bed.”
CELTIC CUP – ROUND 3
Friday, 21 September
Connacht Eagles v Ospreys (Corinthian Park, 3.00pm)
Munster A v Dragons (Irish Independent Park, 5.30pm)
Saturday, 22 September
Cardiff Blues v Ulster A (Cardiff Arms Park, 2.30pm)
Scarlets v Leinster A (Parc y Scarlets, 2.30pm)
