Even though Easterby’s men were on the wrong end of a 23-16 scoreline at Rodney Parade in Round 3 of the new RaboDirect PRO12 season, the Irishman admitted there were plenty of positives to take forward, both for the Scarlets and the game in Wales as a whole.
“It was a good advert for regional rugby and for this league,” said Easterby, whose side battled back from 17-3 down to earn a losing bonus-point in Newport.
“It was a decent game of rugby. It was end-to-end play and it was entertaining. Rodney Parade will not be an easy place to play this season – look at the result against Ulster. We played our part in it being a good game to watch on Friday night, so we’ll be positive about that as well.
“The lads put in a big shift and they are going to be a really competitive team this season. There was a lot about how we performed that gives us a lot to be positive about.”
Easterby admitted that a slow start took him by surprise given that his men had begun brightly in their games against Leinster and Treviso but he felt they had enough about them to have taken more than a single point back to Llanelli.
“We fought back really positively and were very much in the game right until the final minute,” added Easterby.
“I really felt we had plenty in us to score and take the game, but a couple of moments of poor execution didn’t allow us to put points on the board after we’d worked hard to build and fight back.
“I was very pleased how we opened the second half and we did all the right things – we just couldn’t get that final pass away and at key times our accuracy let us down.
“We just feel short in a couple of areas and we’ll be working on the contact area to ensure we keep pressure on sides throughout.”
Next up for the Scarlets is Friday night’s trip to Murrayfield to face an Edinburgh side who beat the Dragons in Round 2 but were hammered by the Ospreys at the weekend.
