A much-changed Connacht side fell to a deflating defeat on Sunday as the Scarlets ran nine tries past them for a 58-10 victory. Eoin Griffin’s try, on his first start, was the only highlight for the westerners.
The Scarlets dominated this bottom-of-the-table clash as a brace of tries each from Rhys Thomas, Jonathan Davies and Regan King helped the hosts to their first win in six matches.
With one eye on next week’s Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final against Toulon, Connacht made the trip with an understrength squad for their third league game in seven days.
The 19-year-old Tiernan O’Halloran made his league debut for the westerners on the right wing, his Ireland Under-20 colleague Eoin Griffin made his first start at centre and there were league bows too for lock David Nolan (21) and replacement flanker Eoin McKeon (18).
The Scarlets welcomed Lions hooker Matthew Rees and prop Rhys Thomas back into the front row, and Rhys Priestland joined Martin Roberts at half-back with Stephen Jones ruled out by a minor ankle injury.
Connacht knocked on when trying to collect Priestland’s kick-off and the omens were not good as Michael Bradley’s men chased only their second win in 35 away league games.
Such was the Scarlets’ stranglehold on proceedings and the ease at which they finished off their scoring chances, they had 24 points on the scoreboard by the 21st minute.
Out-half Priestland opened the scoring with a fifth minute penalty, following a deliberate knock on by O’Halloran. The opening try arrived four minutes later when Thomas muscled his way over the try-line, despite the best efforts of Conor O’Loughlin and Mike McComish.
Television match official Neil Ballard confirmed the grounding, Priestland converted and his opposite number Ian Keatley missed an immediate chance to reply, pulling a penalty effort to the left and wide.
The Connacht defence was stretched again in the 16th minute. They held out, after winger Andy Fenby went close, only for full-back Daniel Evans’ delayed pass to send flanker Rob McCusker charging over under the posts for try number two, which Priestland converted.
The third followed when the Scarlets attacked off quick lineout ball and a sweetly-timed offload from Regan King put his centre partner Jonathan Davies powering through and in behind the posts for another seven-pointer.
Keatley clawed back three points for a Connacht side that maintained a high work-rate, and centre Troy Nathan averted the danger when Rees botched a huge overlap for the Scarlets on the left wing.
Rees redeemed himself, five minutes before the break, to set up the Scarlets’ bonus point try. He prevented the ball from going out of play by flicking it over his head for Thomas to gleefully dive over in the left corner. Priestland smacked over a terrific conversion from the touchline for a 31-3 half-time lead.
Priestland lost his 100% kicking record early the second half – hitting the post with a penalty – but remained a key player in open play as the Scarlets added five more tries.
King claimed his first try in the 47th minute as Sean Lamont sped through a gap and passed for the New Zealander to jink past Connacht full-back Liam Bibo and score under pressure from scrum half O’Loughlin.
Two minutes later, Connacht hit back with their only try of this one-sided encounter. Some neat passing created space on the right for O’Halloran and he tore into the hosts’ 22 before drawing the cover and passing inside for Griffin to finish off behind the posts.
Keatley’s conversion closed the gap to 36-10 but Connacht could not muster another score and they were soon left short-handed, with stand-in captain Adrian Flavin sin-binned for not rollowing away after the tackle.
The Scarlets had only won one of their last eight games against Irish opposition, with that poor run including a 16-10 loss to Connacht at the Sportsground. Keen for revenge, Nigel Davies’ charges piled on the misery for the visitors and finished with a flourish.
Skipper David Lyons’ dummy run created the space for King to put Jonathan Davies through for his second try in the 54th minute.
Flanker Josh Turnbull got in on the try-scoring act on the hour mark, collecting a one-handed offload from lock Lou Reed and raiding in from the right.
Priestland tagged on the conversion to complete his 13-point haul and there were two more five-pointers as the Llanelli-based outfit pushed through the half century mark.
Sending the 5,032-strong crowd home with smiles on their faces, the Scarlets broke through again in the 71st minute when King dummied a pass to Lamont and shrugged off a tackle from Brian Tuohy on the way to the line.
With time almost up, Scottish winger Lamont took full advantage of a quick turnover to fend off O’Loughlin’s attempted tackle and sail over on the right, confirming the Scarlets’ biggest ever Magners League win which eclipsed their 53-11 defeat of the Border Reivers from three years ago.
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