Let’s grab our place in history – Pivac
WAYNE PIVAC has told his Scarlets to go out and make history as they prepare for Welsh rugby’s D-day.
The Scarlets have faltered three times before at the semi-final stage of Europe’s crack competition, but have real belief the jinx will end away to Champions Cup favourites Leinster in Dublin. No Welsh team has been crowned European champions - Cardiff were inaugural finalists 22 years ago – but Pivac is upbeat about the Scarlets rewriting the record books.
“For us, it is an opportunity – 80 minutes away from creating history, being in our first European final. That is the way we are approaching it,” he said.
Cardiff Blues hope to make it a double Welsh celebration by beating Pau in the Challenge Cup semis.
ASCARLETS fan who had been holidaying on Mars since the evening of September 16, 2016 – not an easy one to get past every boss, admittedly – might return to Llanelli with three burning questions.
“How did our coach after Wayne Pivac do? Did we put that tall kid from Ireland on an early ferry home? And did we finish above both Italian clubs last season?”
Possibly, our intrepid space-travelling friend might be surprised to learn that Pivac is not only still in charge at the Scarlets but also talking informally to Wales about succeeding Warren Gatland, such has been the impact he has made.
Tadhg Beirne, that tall kid from Ireland, is in the running to be named European player of the year and the Scarlets not only finished ahead of Benetton and Zebre but everyone else in the Guinness PRO12 when the knock-out matches had been played in 2016-17.
Someone administer smelling salts, and quickly.
It’s a story that takes some believing, especially after the horrendous start the West Walians made to last season, with three defeats in a row. There were plenty who were doubting whether Pivac was indeed the man to take the West Wales team forward.
But credit the region’s board: they kept the faith with the New Zealander and have been handsomely rewarded.
Now comes a Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster in Dublin. The Scarlets’ best chance of upsetting the odds?
That would be if they take the field with the mindset that they are not going to die wondering.
The history of Llanelli rugby in Europe tells them as much.
In 2000, the club team coached by Gareth Jenkins overdid the direct stuff up front against Northampton Saints as they looked to reach the final through a pack that contained the likes of Robin McBryde, John Davies, Chris Wyatt, Simon Easterby and Scott Quinnell.
Saints outscored them on tries and Welsh indiscipline did the rest: 31-28 to the Englishmen.
Two years later, an overly conservative approach cost Jenkins’s team again.
Aside from two games against Calvisano, they scored just two tries in six European matches that season.
In the semi-final against Leicester they had a number of kicks charged down and notwithstanding a terrific defensive effort they fell to 13-12 defeat.
And in regional guise in 2007 they saw their creative catalyst Regan King closed down by Leicester’s double marking.
It wasn’t that the Scarlets didn’t try to unleash their attacking game in that match: it was that they couldn’t, with their English opponents cutting the supply line via relentless forward pressure.
Misery has been the default setting for every Welsh side at this stage of top-tier European rugby, the Cardiff RFC club team of 1996 apart.
Seven times sides from this neck of the rugby woods have made it through to the last four: six times they have come unstuck.
Swansea were physically overwhelmed by Toulouse in Europe’s first year and Cardiff had no answer to Brive 12 months later.
Cardiff Blues did go close in 2009, only to lose to Leicester on penalties.
Swansea, in particular, had no chance of playing the game on their terms, with hosts Toulouse outmuscling them from the first whistle.
The All Whites also suffered two serious injuries. Throw in a postmatch buffet that would have struggled to satisfy 15 mice, let alone rugby players, and it wasn’t an especially happy day for the visitors.
Opinion is perennially split over the best way to play a semi-final, anyway.
Some insist the only way is to simply do what it takes: scrap for everything, play for territory and take zero risks.
But there is another way, and the Scarlets reminded us of it against Leinster in last term’s Guinness PRO12 semi-final.
Then, they simply backed themselves and played with the freedom that might have stamped a Barbarians game against Swansea at St Helen’s on a crystal clear Easter Monday circa 1977.
The fluency and confidence the West Walians displayed in Dublin that night, after seeing Steff Evans sent off, was borderline remarkable.
That high-tempo game was there again when Pivac’s side destroyed Bath at The Rec in the pool stages of this year’s Champions Cup, and it did for Munster in the PRO12 final eight months earlier.
When the Scarlets play like that they are a handful for anyone, with James Davies, Beirne, John Barclay and Scott Williams pilfering opposition ball, Evans causing problems out wide, Gareth Davies speeding through gaps and Rhys Patchell dictating play.
Of course the foundations have to be put in place.
But perspiration is always better when accompanied by a dot of inspiration.
It is all about the Scarlets doing themselves justice this time.
They are losing a number of key players next term, including Barclay, Beirne, Williams and Aled Davies, and while they appear to be picking up good-quality replacements, there are never any guarantees with recruitment.
Beirne has been remarkable this season, and indeed last term as well.
Farmed out to Llandovery to get up to speed early in his Scarlets career, he has surely exceeded the wildest expectations of anyone in Llanelli.
To achieve 50-plus turnovers in all competitions in a single season, with a month left, is akin to Bob Beamon almost jumping beyond the sandpit at the Mexico Olympics in 1968.
And Barclay’s worth can hardly be overstated as well. Like Beirne the mentally and physically tough Scot has been a magnificent import.
If those two will be significant losses, the same can be said for the talismanic Williams and also Davies, who has been more-than-useful back up for Gareth Davies.
The point is the Scarlets need to make the most of getting so far in Europe while they have this group of players.
They need Ken Owens to lead the way up front, the likes of Beirne and Barclay to do their stuff and Leigh Halfpenny to kick his goals; they need to be solid in the set-pieces and bold in attack.
Of course, home advantage is important and Leinster are a side with depth and skill.
Like the Ireland national team, they boast excellent ball retention and a world-class game controller in Jonathan Sexton.
But the Scarlets are capable of troubling them.
Earlier in the year Barclay clearly believed Scotland could beat the All Blacks, so he is hardly going to doubt that the Scarlets can defeat Leinster.
It is all about bringing their nofear A game to the table.
Carwyn James once said: “The boring, unthinking coach continually preaches about mistakes. The creative coach invites his players to make mistakes. Adventure and error go together. I loved (former Llanelli, Wales and Lions star) Lewis Jones’s way: ‘I may concede two, but I’ll score four’.”
Don’t die wondering.
If the Scarlets play as they can, they have a serious chance.