MUNSTER ENDURED A miserable evening, as the Llanelli Scarlets completed the double over the Irish province with an 18-10 victory at Parc Y Scarlets on Saturday evening.
Man of the match Owen Williams scored all of his side’s points as Rob Penney’s men struggled despite having both Ronan O’Gara and Donncha O’Callaghan in their side.
O’Gara only managed one penalty from four attempts as he bookended a miserable week after replacing Jonathan Sexton in the Irish side that was beaten by England at the Aviva Stadium.
The veteran fly-half had a good opportunity to give his side the lead early in the game, when Scarlets were penalised on halfway, but his kick fell short.
That set the tone for a muted display from O’Gara, who subsequently missed another chance from 35 metres when the Scarlets were caught offside in front of their posts.
Williams opened the scoring with a sweetly struck penalty after 14 minutes, and made it two kicks out of three before the 20 minute mark.
The home side was penalised at a scrum on 29 minutes and O’Gara finally had his first points of the game, but Williams restored the six-point deficit to make it 9-3 at half-time.
Williams missed his first effort of the second half when Johne Murphy conceded a penalty for clashing with Phil John, but the Scarlets fly-half quickly made it 12-3 as O’Gara went awry for the third time in the match.
Munster captain Mike Sherry was sin-binned in the 56th minute and that allowed the Scarlets, and Williams, to open up a 12-point lead, and the 20-year-old Williams capped a special performance with a drop goal that all but ended the game as a contest.
The one negative mark against the young Welsh player came when he was sin-binned late in the game and Denis Hurley ran over the only try of the contest for Munster.
O’Gara, at least, kicked the conversion but it was too late for the visitors to change the course of the game.
