Scarlets sweep past Warriors

Rhys Priestland produced a personal haul of 17 points as the Scarlets comfortably overcame a youthful Worcester side 32-17 at Parc y Scarlets in their LV= Cup clash on Saturday.

The victory means the Welsh outfit have now taken a stranglehold on Pool Two of the competition.

Priestland scored a try and kicked three conversions and two penalties as Scarlets celebrated the first anniversary of the move to their new home in style.

The hosts were always in command having taken a 20-3 half-time lead courtesy of tries from wing Darren Daniel and captain David Lyons plus two conversions and two penalties from fly-half Priestland, George Crook booting a solitary penalty in response for Worcester.

Further tries followed for the Scarlets from full-back Daniel Evans and an eye-catching individual effort from Priestland, while number eight Matt Cox and lock Graham Kitchener got consolation scores for the Warriors.

A couple of early errors from scrum-half Ollie Frost put the Warriors on the back foot with his first pass going way over the head of fly-half George Crook. A penalty at a scrum then allowed Priestland to make that pressure pay with three points.

The hosts looked the far more comfortable in possession and replacement scrum-half Lee Williams, on as a blood replacement for Tavis Knoyle, launched a thrilling counter-attack from deep in his own 22.

Williams combined with full-back Evans as the attack took the hosts to within sight of the line, with Worcester coming in at the side of a ruck to give away a penalty which Priestland pushed wide.

Dominance

But the Scarlets eventually gained the reward their dominance deserved when good work from centre Gareth Maule and Evans saw wing Daniel cross out wide in the 25th minute, Priestland slotted the conversion to make it 10-0.

To that point Worcester had offered virtually nothing as an attacking threat and Crook then missed with a penalty as he attempted to get the Warriors on the board, but he made no mistake with his second effort after the Welsh side were penalised for not rolling away in the tackle area.

The Scarlets came again straight from the restart and, after claiming possession, Lyons ploughed his way through some poor tackling to go over behind the posts, Priestland adding the simplest of conversions before adding a penalty on the stroke of half-time.

Matters got even worse for the swamped visitors after the restart as Kitchener was sin-binned for hands in the ruck and, despite Priestland missing the resulting penalty, they were made to pay when full-back Evans cut a swathe through the defence from 22 yards to cross for a converted try.

There was further woe to follow for Worcester as Priestland scored a superb try seconds later as he broke from deep and had the pace to see off Calum MacRae and touch down in the right-hand corner to seal a bonus point.

Kitchener returned from the bin and Worcester finally enjoyed an extended spell in the Scarlets half, with number eight Matt Cox taking a quick tap and go to barge over from close range on the hour, MacRae knocking over the testing conversion.

The Warriors got another try back late on as the hosts saw two attempted clearances charged down, allowing Kitchener to flop on the loose ball with MacRae converting.