The Scarlets secured their twelfth Welsh cup in fine style at the Millennium Stadium with a 32-9 win over Newport…
In a fitting end to the competition before it undergoes restructuring next season, the team that has raised the cup the most, raised it again in front of 27,500 supporters under the closed roof.
And no man was more delighted than Scarlets head coach Gareth Jenkins.
“I played in the cup final 30 years ago to the day, I was delighted then, and I’m delighted now,” he said.
“It’s closed the chapter. The cup will have a new format next year, and will be very important in Welsh Rugby.”
In the end, the class of Llanelli, and the astuteness of Jenkins proved the difference, and an ugly second period sprang to life with the inclusion of Dwayne Peel and Salesi Finau.
“I felt we had to make changes,” said Jenkins. “There wasn’t the space behind and I felt we had to make the hard yards up front.”
Peel provided the spark, and Finau the muscle in the final fifteen minutes as the Scarlets raced away to a four try to nil victory.
But the game had been close until that point.
The first score came after just one minute from the boot of Newport’s South African fullback Percy Montgomery, and early signs that the match could be a kicking dual seemed on the cards as Stephen Jones levelled the scores six minutes later.
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The first half was dominated by Llanelli, but it was Newport that were putting points on the board. They took a 9-3 lead when Montgomery scored a dropped goal and a penalty goal after 23 and 27 minutes.
The momentum of the match seemed to be swinging Newport’s way when they had a sustained period of pressure inside the Scarlets 22 after 30 minutes, but when Shane Howarth telegraphed his pass, Llanelli’s David Hodges made an American Football style interception and raced to the half-way line, timing his pass perfectly to the waiting wing Mark Jones.
No-one was going to catch Jones, and he sprinted fifty metres unopposed to score the game’s opening try. His namesake Stephen added the extras to give Llanelli a lead they would never relinquish.
Newport seemed determined to spoil the tempo of the game in the second-half, and with the referee the busiest man on the park, they also seemed a side lacking ambition and any idea of how to get behind the structured Scarlets defence.
But Llanelli were also struggling to find ways of extending their lead. The inclusion of Salesi Finau and Dwayne Peel made the difference.
After 67 minutes, Finau’s power was in evidence as he burst through the arms of Howarth, he fed Watkins who fed Jones, and the nippy wing cut inside to score his second of the day.
It was all over, and Newport knew it, and when Jones scored a penalty goal just three minutes later, Newport found themselves eleven points behind, and without an attacking game plan.
Llanelli scored two tries in injury time through Finau and the industrious Davies to enforce the victory, and take the Principality Cup back to Stradey Park.
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